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CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

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Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#51

Post by wil421 »

ShorsHammer wrote: post #18
stcredzero wrote: post #8

The other day, my wife introduced me to yet another difference between Chinese cuisine and US cuisine: She cooked the Romaine lettuce she got from her coworker. She just cooked it like you'd cook Bok Choy. It was quite good! My wife also rinses everything we get from the store. No one is to be trusted with your family's food. Absolutely everything is rinsed, including things most Americans would really rather not. On…

Many restaurants in China serve cooked lettuce as a side, I found it quite odd at first but it's really tasty and with some soy sauce easy to eat by itself. Cooking lettuce in the western world will probably raise a few eyebrows.

I’ve halved romaine lettuce and grilled it before with olive oil, salt and pepper topped with a light Vinaigrette. Quite tastey but difficult to grill. I’ve done it twice.

My wife’s eyebrows were raised both times. She thought it was weird but didn’t think it tasted bad.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#52

Post by [deleted] »

krackers wrote: post #50
nixpulvis wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would other types of lettuce be any less susceptible to E. coli?

IIRC the past few outbreaks have only been for romaine lettuce. Iceberg and green leaf seem to be have relatively fewer incidents, though I'm not sure if this is due to something about the supply source, the way it's used, or the way it's grown.

[deleted]

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#53

Post by jkaplowitz »

windexh8er wrote: post #20
craftyguy wrote: post #2

It seems like no one learned anything after the last one 5 months ago: https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html IIRC the first outbreak was from farmers in Yuma watering their fields with water that had been contaminated by runoff from a large cattle farm upstream. (The article says the two aren't related, but it seems like more than a coincidence unless romaine lettuce is more succeptible to contractin…

Consumer Reports had a more thorough article than the short write up by the CDC. I find it frustrating the CDC blanket points the fjnger at lettuce without disclosing root cause. People confuse the fact that plants are not the source, animal feces is (most likely in this case). Just as s it was last time... https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-are...

The CDC is saying to avoid romaine lettuce until we learn more about the outbreak, with a promise to update the advice as more information becomes available.

That seems quite an appropriate way to proceed and does not imply that the lettuce itself is the cause.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#54

Post by windexh8er »

village-idiot wrote: post #49
windexh8er wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumer Reports had a more thorough article than the short write up by the CDC. I find it frustrating the CDC blanket points the fjnger at lettuce without disclosing root cause. People confuse the fact that plants are not the source, animal feces is (most likely in this case). Just as s it was last time... https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-are...

But it's still correct to be wary of plants, the fact that you typically eat them raw makes them the most common source of infection.

Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat.

The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#55

Post by npongratz »

tyingq wrote: post #16
po wrote: post #13

If people are wondering why vegetables can be infected with something like E. Coli, the reason is that animal waste is often used as fertilizer, or animals live near the crop's water supply and then gets sprayed all over the vegetable crops.

It's not just animal waste. http://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/

To be fair, humans are animals. But yes, waste from human and non-human animals have contaminated crops throughout history.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#56

Post by windexh8er »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #53
windexh8er wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumer Reports had a more thorough article than the short write up by the CDC. I find it frustrating the CDC blanket points the fjnger at lettuce without disclosing root cause. People confuse the fact that plants are not the source, animal feces is (most likely in this case). Just as s it was last time... https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-are...

The CDC is saying to avoid romaine lettuce until we learn more about the outbreak, with a promise to update the advice as more information becomes available. That seems quite an appropriate way to proceed and does not imply that the lettuce itself is the cause.

The way it is presented gives zero background and conflates the issue. You realize the CDC did this last year as well? Did you hear about it? Probably not.

It's also interesting there is little to no showcase if the turkey issue right before US Thanksgiving: https://www.nola.com/news/2018/11/just-in-time-for-thanksgiv...

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#58

Post by nixpulvis »

ryukafalz wrote: post #33
stcredzero wrote: post #8

The other day, my wife introduced me to yet another difference between Chinese cuisine and US cuisine: She cooked the Romaine lettuce she got from her coworker. She just cooked it like you'd cook Bok Choy. It was quite good! My wife also rinses everything we get from the store. No one is to be trusted with your family's food. Absolutely everything is rinsed, including things most Americans would really rather not. On…

>Absolutely everything is rinsed Don't rinse raw meat. It makes things worse! https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety...

I mean, unless I'm eating it completely raw (where is hope to practically know the cow by name) then washing the outside before cooking it seems like a complete waste of time.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#59

Post by vel0city »

windexh8er wrote: post #54
village-idiot wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's still correct to be wary of plants, the fact that you typically eat them raw makes them the most common source of infection.

Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat. The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.

I am pretty much always going to throw a cut of meat on the grill or in a pan on the stove. This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food.

I'm likely to just rinse off an apple or lettuce, which may or may not successfully clean the food.

Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce

#60

Post by village-idiot »

windexh8er wrote: post #54
village-idiot wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's still correct to be wary of plants, the fact that you typically eat them raw makes them the most common source of infection.

Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat. The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.

You're missing the point.

You cook meat the vast majority of the time. This massively reduces the risk of foodborne illness.

Lettuce on the other hand, is eaten raw. As a sibling comment mentioned, at best lettuce gets a rinse, if that.

So while the source isn't actually the lettuce itself, lettuce is the perfect carrier. This is why produce is the source of half of US food poisonings, while meat and poultry only cause 22[0]. You can get pedantic about the original source, but from the end consumer's perspective this does not matter one iota. It doesn't really matter much whether or not the ecoli on your lettuce grew there, or was deposited by cow feces, it matters that there's ecoli on your freaking lettuce.

0. https://www.vox.com/2015/3/6/8158289/food-poisoning

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