Romaine Lettuce Outbreak -

What Consumers Should Know

As a result of recent outbreaks associated with romaine lettuce, lettuce and leafy greens farmers are taking additional precautions. 

To help communicate these measures, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) has issued an action list of ten things being done to keep leafy greens safe. These activities are designed to improve leafy greens safety now and into the future.

The LGMA is the most stringent food safety program in the produce industry. In many areas, this program goes well beyond what’s required of other produce crops under federal laws.

For example, the LGMA is the only program that requires its farmers to perform mandatory water testing and have traceback systems in place to track product back to the farm and forward to the first customer who receives it. On top of that, existing standards have been strengthened even further in the aftermath of recent outbreaks.

The list of Ten Things Being Done to Make Leafy Green Safer (in its entirety below) includes things like:

• A heavying-up of government audits conducted on leafy greens farms over the next three months;
• Stringent enforcement of sweeping new water standards for all LGMA member companies;
• An ongoing pilot program to improve the supply chain’s ability to assist government investigators in tracing lettuce from consumers back to the farm where it was grown;
• Enhanced testing of farming inputs like compost to monitor for pathogens.

All of this is being done to ensure consumers are protected. Now more than ever, it’s farmers’ responsibility to prevent leafy greens products from becoming the source of foodborne illness.

TEN THINGS BEING DONE TO MAKE LEAFY GREENS SAFER