The CDC is Telling Consumers to Avoid Eating Romaine Lettuce

A new warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is strongly urging everyone to stop eating romaine lettuce for the time being. That is, unless you want to risk getting E. coli.

According to the CDC's official website, all romaine lettuce grown in the Yuma, Arizona region is at risk of being contaminated with E. Coli. This includes heads and hearts of romaine lettuce, as well as chopped romaine and salad mixes. Even if your family has purchased and eaten some romaine lettuce recently and nobody has gotten sick, you should still toss it in the trash. Basically, if it contains romaine lettuce, don't eat it. The website reads:

"Do not buy or eat romaine lettuce at a grocery store or restaurant unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region."

The difficult part about this situation is that most product labels don't tell you the growing region, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

So far, 53 people across 16 different states have contracted E. coli from eating this lettuce. Nobody from the state of Iowa has been impacted, but people in Illinois and Missouri have. Luckily there have been no deaths, but over 30 people have been hospitalized because of it. I eat a Caesar salad for lunch almost every single day, so I'm going to have to change things up this week.

The investigation is ongoing, but if you'd like to keep up to date with the details, click HERE.

[Via CDC]