Calif. lettuce warning recalls 2006 E. coli outbreak

July 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

California’s salad bowl remains far from pristine, even as farmers attempt to do more to keep produce free of stomach-churning contaminants.

Four years after tainted spinach killed three and sickened hundreds, state health officials last week again told consumers the E. coli bacteria is lurking in their produce, this time in Fresh Express brand packaged lettuce in California and 18 other states.

The discovery again raised questions about how the nation’s fresh food is farmed and processed and whether government should have a stronger enforcement role in policing farming practices.

There are no known reports of people falling ill from any of the 500,000 bags of ready-to-eat salad mix distributed in California. The state Department of Public Health warned consumers to discard packages of Fresh Express salad greens that contain romaine lettuce and are marked with “use by” dates of July 8-12.

“That’s a lot of lettuce,” said Ken August, a spokesman for the agency. “That would represent a lot of consumers.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected the E. coli during routine testing of a bag bought from a grocery store July 5. The FDA told the state Monday, but Department of Public Health officials said in an e-mail that they needed to review the results before notifying the public Thursday.