People planning to serve a crisp romaine salad with their Thanksgiving meal should probably rethink their side dishes.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert Tuesday, advising U.S. and Canadian consumers, retailers, and restaurants to stop eating, selling, and serving romaine lettuce following an outbreak of E. coli infections.
Thirty-two people from 11 states have been infected with “a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli” thus far, leading to 13 hospitalizations, ABC News reports. Although no deaths have been reported, one of those hospitalized experienced kidney failure. Thus far, 18 people have been infected in Canada.
Outbreak Alert: Do not eat any romaine lettuce, including whole heads and hearts, chopped, organic and salad mixes with romaine until we learn more. If you don’t know if it’s romaine or can’t confirm the source, don’t eat it. https://t.co/NrFOIxG8hxpic.twitter.com/FuzkHv4bd3
— CDC (@CDCgov) November 20, 2018
Before it learns more about the source the outbreak, the CDC told consumers to throw out “whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad” — and then wash and sanitize whatever space in which the romaine was stored.
This news has also prompted an outbreak of lettuce puns.
https://twitter.com/maxjrosenthal/status/1064977839999598592
Lettuce pray pic.twitter.com/WG7coLUQK5
— Dylan Park-Pettiford (@dyllyp) November 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/stevekovach/status/1064978594009620480
With the CDC’s announcement last week linking turkey to a salmonella outbreak in 35 states, Thanksgiving dinner hosts might want to stick to pie and call it a day.