Safe to Eat? American Food Safety · Episode 7 of 8 · 20 min
The View from the Field: Salinas and the Salad Bowl
Bagged leafy greens from a few California and Arizona valleys keep causing multistate E. coli outbreaks. The episode covers why raw greens are inherently risky, the watershed 2006 spinach outbreak, the romaine outbreaks of 2018 and 2019, and the whole-genome sequencing that now traces a few far-flung illnesses back to a single field.
Where it happens
- Salinas Valley, California+7 more episodesLeading U.S. summer source of lettuce and leafy greens
- Yuma, Arizona+2 more episodesDominant winter source of the same crops
- San Benito County, California+2 more episodesField traced to the 2006 spinach outbreak
- Santa Barbara County, CaliforniaReservoir traced to the fall 2018 romaine outbreak
Timeline
- 2006Spinach outbreak sickens about 199 people in 26 states; leafy greens marketing agreement follows in 2007
- Spring 2018Yuma-region romaine outbreak: 210 ill in 36 states, 5 dead
- Fall 2018Central Coast romaine outbreak sickens 62 people; pre-Thanksgiving advisory issued
- Fall 2019Salinas Valley romaine outbreak: 167 ill in 27 states
- March 2020FDA releases its Leafy Greens Shiga-toxin E. coli Action Plan
Still debated
Figures vary slightly, such as 3 to 5 deaths in 2006 and 34 versus 36 states in 2018. How much the apparent frequency of outbreaks reflects real change versus better sequencing since 2019 is also unsettled.
