According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of people who became ill with E. coli in a recent outbreak in the Midwest ate at a Wendy’s restaurant a week before their symptoms appeared.
Although the CDC hasn’t definitively linked the fast food restaurant to the infections, the majority of those who became ill said they had eaten sandwiches there that were topped with romaine lettuce. As a precaution, the chain’s eateries in the area have ceased using lettuce in their sandwiches, according to a statement from the Columbus-based business.
The statement read, “We are taking the precaution of withdrawing the sandwich lettuce from eateries in that location,” despite the fact that the CDC has not yet established a specific meal as the cause of the incident. We use different lettuce for our salads, therefore this action has no impact on it. As a business, we are dedicated to maintaining our high standards for food quality and safety.
According to the CDC and Michigan officials, at least 65 people have become ill across the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, including 10 who have been hospitalized. There are no known fatalities.
In Ohio and Michigan, the CDC announces a “fast-moving” E. coli outbreak.
The CDC stated on Friday that it is not encouraging people to stop eating romaine lettuce or to stay away from Wendy’s restaurants. According to the government, there is currently no proof linking romaine lettuce served in restaurants, grocery stores, or people’s homes to this outbreak.
Romaine lettuce has been connected to a number of well-known E. coli outbreaks. Farmers were compelled to test irrigation water, which can be polluted with excrement and bacteria, under the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was enacted into law in 2011. But the FDA has put off starting it.
According to Bill Marler, a lawyer who focuses on matters involving foodborne illnesses, “E. coli outbreaks related with lettuce, notably the ‘prewashed’ and’ready-to-eat’ kinds, are by no means a new problem.” In fact, it’s amazing how frequently outbreaks of dangerous germs have affected the nation’s consumers of fresh food.
What to know about the symptoms of E. coli and how to avoid getting sick
The outbreak follows a number of other well-publicized cases of reportedly tainted food this year. Salmonella infections linked to a multistate outbreak were looked into by the FDA and CDC, leading to numerous recalls of various Jif brand peanut butter products. Five million bottles of baby formula were recalled by Abbott Nutrition after at least four infants fell unwell, two of whom passed away. Several states had to recall their ice cream due to a listeria outbreak linked to the Big Olaf Creamery in Sarasota, Florida, while this spring’s hepatitis A outbreak was linked to organic strawberries.
State and municipal public health officials have questioned people about the foods they consumed in the week prior to becoming ill, but the cause of the current E. coli infections has been slow to come to light.
The CDC is attempting to ascertain the actual extent of the outbreak, which agency officials say may go beyond the four states already known to be affected. To find diseases that may be associated with this epidemic, public health investigators are using the PulseNet system, a national database of DNA fingerprints of bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses.
According to the CDC, foodborne illnesses cause 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospital admissions, and 3,000 fatalities annually in the United States.
$3 billion is spent on medical expenses each year due to foodborne disease. According to the CDC, produce is the likely source of nearly half of the illnesses. The following include meat and poultry, dairy products and eggs, fish and shellfish, in that sequence.
