December 22, 2020 -- All three outbreaks potentially linked to lettuce are now over.

Brief:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and U. S. Food and Drug Administration have announced an outbreak believed to be associated with leafy greens is over.  This is the final outbreak to conclude of three that were under investigation this fall.   Currently there are no ongoing outbreaks involving any leafy greens products.

What Leafy Greens Farmers Want You to Know

While epidemiology and traceback investigations have determined this outbreak was linked to leafy greens, investigators were not able to determine the specific type of leafy greens involved.

According to the FDA, teams were deployed to dozens of ranches to conduct large-scale environmental sampling. FDA and state partners also conducted on-site investigations on farms of interest identified through traceback of products consumed by ill consumers.

No single ranch was identified as a common source of the leafy greens.

Additionally, no Shiga toxin-producing E. coli were found on leafy greens.

FDA’s investigational activities are ongoing. A detailed report of FDA’s findings in the investigation will be released in early 2021.   We look forward to the report and any information it includes that could help to make our crops safer.

What Consumers Should Do

There are no recommendations being provided for consumers, retailers or suppliers.

What Health Officials are Saying:

Below are links to official announcements from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control:

Outbreak #1 – CDC declared this outbreak over December 18, 2020

Outbreak #2 – CDC declared this outbreak over December 22, 2020

Outbreak #3 – CDC has declared this outbreak over December 18, 2020

Below are links to the official announcements from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration:

Outbreak Investigation of E. coli – Leafy Greens (December 2020):  CDC declares outbreak over, FDA investigation ongoing

Outbreak Investigation of E. coli O157:H7: Unknown Food (Fall 2020):  FDA announces completion of two E. coli outbreak investigations.