The Food and Drug Administration has traced the E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce to the central coast growing areas of northern and central California as the likely source.
But it says its traceback from four restaurants in three states points to 10 distributors, 12 growers and 11 farms as possible sources of the contaminated lettuce.
“The information indicates that the outbreak cannot be explained by a single farm, grower, harvester, or distributor,” it said in a Dec. 6 statement.
After an agreement between major romaine grower-shippers and the FDA, lettuce now being shipped will be labeled with harvest location and date and is from alternate regions to those in the outbreak.
