Here we go again!

Yes, you’ve probably heard there is another recall of ROMAINE lettuce. It was obvious when our local grocery store pulled all the products that contained romaine. The shelves looked empty.

This is the fifth such recall due to E.coli O157:H7 since late 2017.

According to a Food Safety News article https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2019/11/letter-from-the-editor-lets-call-the-whole-thing-off/ over 360 people have been infected during these outbreaks with many hospitalizations and at least six deaths.

This recall started with packaged salads but now expanded to all ROMAINE lettuce grown in
the Salinas, California area.  Read your labels.  Many are now saying where the lettuce was grown. If the package contains ROMAINE but you don’t know the origin, don’t take chances.   The package I had in my refrigerator just said product of the US but also emphasized it did NOT contain any Romaine.

The same goes for salads in restaurants and salad bars. Ask the staff —hopefully, their suppliers have verified where the lettuce was harvested. If they don’t know, don’t take a chance.

E.coli O157:H7 is a nasty bacterium that can lead to potentially life-threatening kidney failure —especially in young children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.  For many years we’ve associated these bacteria with undercooked ground beef. But these recent recalls show that ROMAINE is also a major potential source.  The pathogen is killed by sufficient heat but obviously, since lettuce and salads aren’t cooked they have become a source. This is not something that you can wash off the lettuce.

E.coli O157:H7 has also been associated with unpasteurized (raw) milk and juice, soft cheeses made from raw milk, and raw fruits and sprouts. It has also recently been linked to raw flour.

Right now the recall is ONLY for ROMAINE lettuce (whole heads, hearts, salad mixes with romaine, baby romaine and Caesar salad mixes). Other leafy greens have NOT been implicated.

The recall is ONLY for the Salinas, California growing region.  This includes Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey counties in California.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS

Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

FMI – see GREEN IDEAS 

References:

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-115-2019-release

https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2019/o157h7-11-19/index.html

Back to basics with the Food Diary Tearpad

Keeping a food diary is a great way for clients to become aware of what, when, and how much they eat. There are plenty of apps for online tracking, but sometimes technology makes this simple task too complicated. Get back to the basics with our Food Diary Tearpad!

The Food Diary Tearpad is user-friendly and self-explanatory, making it perfect for health fairs or classes where you’re unable to provide in-depth individual attention. People can write down what they eat in a day, then use the checklist of MyPlate recommendations to “grade” themselves. There’s also space to check off water intake, exercise, movement (cleaning, chores, playing), sleep, and screen time. That’s a lot of information collected on one page!

Lessons to use with the Food Diary Tearpad:

  • Tracking food intake makes you more aware of the choices you’re making. This awareness helps you make better choices.
  • Knowing you have to write down what you’re about to eat is often enough to keep you from over-indulging. If you don’t want to see it on paper, you might decide not to eat it!
  • You can’t change what you don’t track. Whether it’s screen time, drinking enough water, or eating more vegetables, keeping track lets you compare what you are doing with what you want to do.
  • People use food diaries differently, and that’s ok. Some simply want to jot down the foods they eat to get a general view of food groups they are missing or overeating. Others are more detail-oriented and can learn even more by recording portion sizes, time, place, and calories.
  • Compare your food diary to your individualized MyPlate Plan, which you can get at ChooseMyPlate.gov/MyPlatePlan. How are you doing on calories? Portion sizes?
  • Look at when and where you eat each meal and snack. Do you eat most meals away from home? Do you skip meals during the day then snack all evening? How long do you usually go between meals?
  • Get a handle on emotional eating by writing down how you feel whenever you eat.
  • Keeping a daily food diary helps people lose weight. But even using our Food Diary for just one day provides a lot of information on your diet and lifestyle. Use this to choose a goal to work on.