Utah health officials: Romaine lettuce soon to be sold again with new labeling standards

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SALT LAKE CITY — Good news for those who have been missing their salad.

Following a nationwide recall of all romaine lettuce last week, state health officials on Tuesday announced the staple leafy green should soon be safe to buy again.

And the recent E. coli outbreak that affected at least 32 people in 11 states is leading to changes in the produce industry.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now encouraging producers and distributors to label romaine lettuce with a harvest location and date — and cautioning people to only buy romaine lettuce that is labeled thus.

"If (lettuce) does not have this information, you should not eat or use it," FDA officials said in a statement released by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

"Now they will very soon start to allow romaine lettuce to be sold again and shipped to grocery stores and restaurants, etc. … that's when you're going to start seeing those labels," Jack Wilbur, spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, told KSL.

He said the FDA has not yet released an example of what the label will look like or how soon the label will be used, but that people can expect it in the "very near future."

Many restaurants throughout the state have put up signs informing customers that they are not serving certain salads during the recall, Wilbur said. Restaurants that receive shipments of romaine lettuce will also soon know exactly where and when it was produced, he added.

Richard Beckstrand, a program manager for the department, said the labeling standard is "welcome news."

"Similar labeling should be encouraged for all produce," Beckstrand said.

According to the department, the FDA investigated the E. coli outbreak over the Thanksgiving holiday and found it originated from areas of California where lettuce is grown during the summer — and where the "vast majority" of lettuce on the market came from during the outbreak.

But harvest season for romaine lettuce in those areas is just ending, officials said, and most lettuce harvested in winter comes from different areas of California, other states and Mexico.

"At this time, the FDA has no information to suggest any of these growing areas are involved in the current outbreak, which began well before any romaine lettuce from these winter growing locations was available for harvest," officials said.

According to the statement, the leafy greens industry will create a task force to formulate labeling standards and standards to better trace produce.

"The task force will also examine information from this outbreak to identify measures that led to its occurrence and how to prevent ongoing safety problems with romaine lettuce," officials said.

Wilbur said while the new standard only affects romaine lettuce, other types of produce may be labeled similarly in the future.