Tainted romaine likely from Central Coast; growers agree to voluntary labeling.

Somewhere along the Central Coast in October, enough E.coli O57:H7 lay hidden among fields of romaine lettuce to result in more than 40 people in 12 states to fall ill and tons of the leafy green to get tossed into trash cans and dumpsters across the U.S. right before Thanksgiving.

At first, investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration weren’t exactly sure where the bad romaine was coming from, so they issued an alert on Nov. 20 urging people to dump any romaine they had, no matter where it came from.

Using traceback evidence they’ve now got it narrowed down to coming from one of six Central Coast Counties, including Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz, according to an FDA statement issued on Nov. 28. Romaine from other areas like Yuma, Arizona, and Mexico are deemed safe.

Up until now consumers had no way of telling where their romaine was coming from, but out of crisis has come something new for the industry: labeling.

Talks between government officials and growers resulted in the growers voluntarily agreeing to labeling all bags of romaine with where it was grown and approximately when it was harvested, says Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Henry Gonzales.

“This way the consumer can be more confident that what they bought is not part of the alert,” Gonzales says. He expects labeling to begin immediately.

Since the alert was issued last week, U.S. Congressman Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, has been in daily contact with Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of food and drugs for the FDA, says his spokesperson, Sarah Davey. Panetta wants the FDA to further narrow down the source of the outbreak.

“A swift and thorough investigation from your respective agencies is critical to protect public health and reduce crop losses not connected with this specific outbreak,” Panetta wrote in a letter he sent to Gottlieb on Nov. 26.

“I urge you to work collaboratively with all stakeholders, including appropriate agricultural representatives, to quickly identify the specific region and source of this outbreak.”

The economic impact on Monterey County’s romaine growers has yet to be determined, Gonzales says. His office is planning on gathering sales numbers for both 2018 and 2017 and present a comparison as part of the 2018 Crop Report, typically released in June.

As of Nov. 26, the CDC says 16 people have been hospitalized and there are no deaths. Of the 43 sickened, 11 were in California.