The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that you can now eat romaine lettuce again after a possible link to a breakout of E. coli. There's just one condition. You need to know where the romaine lettuce is from first.

The CDC urges people to not eat romaine lettuce from the Coastal Central growing regions of northern and central California. There's still not not enough information to narrow it down to a specific grower or distributor. However, as long as your romaine lettuce isn't from that region, you are safe to eat it again.

As you may recall, the CDC urged people not to eat romaine lettuce last week after a link to a breakout of E. coli was attributed to it. So far, romaine lettuce has made 43 people sick in 12 states, plus another 22 in Canada.

Now you can eat romaine lettuce confidently again, as long as it isn't from the aforementioned region. The CDC says "If you do not know where the romaine is from, do not eat it."

How can you determine where your lettuce is from? The CDC offered a few tips on that. 

  • Romaine lettuce products will be labeled with a harvest location by region. It may take some time before these labels are available.
    • If the romaine lettuce is not labeled with a harvest growing region, do not buy, serve, sell, or eat it.
  • Check bags or boxes of romaine lettuce for a label indicating where the lettuce was harvested. Romaine lettuce labeled with a harvest region outside of the Central Coastal growing regions of northern and central California (such as the desert growing region near Yuma, the California desert growing region near Imperial County and Riverside County, the state of Florida, and Mexico) is not linked to this outbreak.
  • If you do not know where your romaine lettuce was harvested, do not eat it and throw it away.
    • This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of pre-cut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
    • If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
    • Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator.

For more information on the investigation, visit the CDC website.

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