As many of you know, on November 20th, the CDC issued a national ban on all sales and all use of all Romaine lettuce.

This was because a number of Americans had gotten infected with a bad strain of the E. coli bacteria traced to Romaine lettuce sold in America.

I noted in the initial notice that the ban was national in scope most likely because the contaminated Romaine lettuce’s source was not known, and once it was known, the ban would be lifted from all but that source.

Now we can say with certainty that  is exactly what happened and what is happening.  This week the FDA and CDC announced that all the contaminated Romaine lettuce sold in the US came from one and only one region of the world:  California’s North and Central Coast.

Read more here at the New York Times.

This means it is perfectly safe to buy and eat Romaine lettuce from anywhere else.

Fortunately, the total of people known to have been infected by lettuce from Northern and Central Coastal California stayed less than 100.

BOTTOM LINES

It is now safe to eat Romaine lettuce IF the lettuce states its origin and its origin is not North or Central Coastal California.

Curious that all Romaine lettuce from Mexico, and any other country is safe.

To your health,
Dr. Arthur Lavin