Dumping romaine and loss of jobs – how the E. Coli outbreak affected Yuma

U.S. health officials have narrowed down the search for the source of the latest E. Coli outbreak to the Central Coast region of California.

Many regulators; however , are still saying it is unsafe to eat romaine in certain states.

Yet, local farmers are still feeling the effects of the hundreds of truckloads of romaine lettuce that were dumped per the CDC’s previous warning.

Paul Brierley, executive director for Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, says knowing this, consumers in Y uma are still worried about buying romaine.

“There’s definitely weariness out there and that’s one of the things that the industry is working hard to try to ensure everybody and I guarantee you that Yuma has spent this whole off-season, and the whole industry, is trying to just double down on food safety efforts. They do all sorts of testing, training, and audits and it’s amazing the work that they do,” he said.

Two days before Thanksgiving, the CDC issued a food safety warning saying 32 people across 11 states had become sick due to contaminated romaine lettuce.

The CDC has now recommended retailers to put labels with the date and region on romaine lettuce.

Brierley says that even stores in Yuma now have this requirement.

“So there will be new labeling put on products that will show that this was harvested from Yuma, Arizona, and a certain date. And so when the FDA or the CDC advises people or retailers not to sell or not to eat a product like that, the consumer has a way to know and the distributor has a way to know, is this product cleared or is it some of the suspect product,” he said.

In a tweet, the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said ” We’re working with growers and distributors on labeling produce for location and harvest date and possibly other ways of informing consumers that the product is ‘post-purge.'”

The FDA is also encouraging consumers to not eat any romaine that is not labeled.

This labeling arrangement came after the produce industry urged the FDA to narrow the scope of its warning.

The warning resulted in hundreds of 40,000-pound truckloads of romaine to be dumped.

“It was a real shame, because like I said the outbreak happened with the product that was shipped before anything was harvested here in Yuma, so we know that this wasn’t involved in the outbreak. It had to be dumped. Fresh produce is fresh produce, it’s perishable. When it’s ready to harvest, it has to be harvested and sold. If you can’t it’ll go bad,” Brierley said.

The outbreak also caused hundreds of people to be out of a job near the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Dumping it was heartbreaking, it put people out of work. There was a lot of time around Thanksgiving when harvest crews, processing crews were left needing a job. A lot of people were out of jobs,” Brierley said.

One expert says romaine may be more susceptible to contamination due to its larger leaves.

The FDA recently announced it will be holding four one-day public meetings to go over a new draft guidance, helping farmers meet the requirements of the produce safety rule.

This rule requires that domestic and foreign farms use science and risk-based preventive measures to protect produce from contamination.

Brierley says now that the CDC has narrowed their search of initial spread, farmers will be able to harvest romaine again.

“Prior to that, there was just a do not eat, do not distribute, do not sell romaine, so yes yesterday we were given the green light to start harvesting and producing,” he said.

On Tuesday, representative Tim Dunn applauded the FDA and the CDC as well as the Arizona Department of Agriculture for clearing Yuma and Imperial Valley from this recent E. Coli outbreak.

Symptoms of E. coli infection, which usually begin about three or four days after consuming the bacteria, can include watery or bloody diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting, according to the CDC.

Most people infected by the bacteria get better within five to seven days, though this particular strain of E. Coli tends to cause more severe illness.

People of all ages are at risk of becoming infected with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, according to the FDA. Children under 5, adults older than 65 and people with weakened immune systems, such as people with chronic diseases, are more likely to develop severe illness, but even healthy children and adults can become seriously ill.