More than a week after international news media headlines about E. coli in romaine lettuce, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has finally posted information on its website.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, which is usually slower off the mark on food-poisoning events, led the CFIA this time by at least five days.
Eight of 22 people in Canada who have been identified with food poisoning linked to romaine have been hospitalized. One is suffering liver damage.
The CFIA is explaining why it’s having difficulty pinning down the source of the bacteria, although the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Agency tweeted over the weekend that it’s in California.
Here’s part of what the CFIA has now said on its website:
In the case of the current situation, epidemiological evidence has pointed to romaine lettuce as the common product (involved in food poisonings). However, no common source of contamination has been identified so far. All products sampled as part of this investigation have tested negative for E. coli O157 and we have not been able to identify any contaminated product in the Canadian marketplace.
The delay between eating the food, the onset of symptoms, and being able to link the case to a particular cluster of illnesses is equal, and often times longer, than the shelf life of the product that caused the illnesses. This means that by the time an investigation starts into potential food items, the perishable goods are no longer in the market place or available for testing.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that we are looking for a small amount of lettuce contaminated with E. coliO157 amidst the large volume of safe romaine lettuce that is purchased, served and consumed in Canada on a daily basis.
In fact, since April 1st, 2017, the CFIA has also tested more than 2000 samples of imported fresh vegetables and salads, including romaine lettuce and pre-packaged salads containing romaine lettuce as part of its regular microbiological surveillance program.
The fact that there have been no positive results despite this level of testing confirms that lettuce has a very low level of contamination.
