--- title: Health Officials Say Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak has Ended description: The US Centers for Disease Control and the US Food and Drug Administration declared that the nationwide E. Coli outbreak ended Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/5766332/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-ended/ author: Sanya Mansoor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-16T16:38:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:04:21.482Z article:section: Health og:title: Health Officials: Romaine Lettuce is Safe to Eat Again as Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak has Ended og:description: The FDA and CDC declared that the outbreak was over as of Wednesday og:url: https://time.com/5766332/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-ended/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bd0f1194190f721/698a08f9457a527befd636c2/romaine-lettuce.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Romaine Lettuce og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Health Officials: Romaine Lettuce is Safe to Eat Again as Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak has Ended twitter:description: The FDA and CDC declared that the outbreak was over as of Wednesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bd0f1194190f721/698a08f9457a527befd636c2/romaine-lettuce.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Health Officials Say Romaine Lettuce is Safe to Eat Again as Nationwide E. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Jan 16, 2020 4:38 PM UTC  Romaine lettuce is displayed on a shelf at a supermarket on April 23, 2018 in San Rafael, California. Romaine lettuce is displayed on a shelf at a supermarket on April 23, 2018 in San Rafael, California. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Jan 16, 2020 4:38 PM UTC The [US Centers for Disease Control](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2019/o157h7-11-19/index.html) and the [US Food and Drug Administration](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/statement-salinas-linked-romaine-lettuce-e-coli-o157h7-outbreak-and-status-update-investigation) have declared that the recent nationwide E. Coli outbreak, which contaminated romaine lettuce, ended as of Wednesday. Authorities traced the outbreak back to the Salinas Valley growing region in California. The FDA has lifted a consumer advisory to avoid romaine lettuce from Salinas “as the growing season for this region is over and there is no longer a need for consumers to avoid it.” Health officials had [previously advised](https://time.com/5740421/cdc-romaine-lettuce-e-coli/) consumers, retailers and restaurants to[ throw out](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-brief/fda-brief-fda-warns-consumers-not-eat-romaine-lettuce-grown-salinas-california) any romaine lettuce grown in the Salinas, Calif. region. People had started falling sick from Sept. 20 through Dec. 21, the CDC reported. Twenty-seven states reported a total of 167 people who had been infected with this particular outbreak strain of E. coli with ages ranging from younger than 1 to 89. Eighty-five individuals were hospitalized of which 15 developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to the CDC. No deaths were reported. The FDA noted that two other separate, smaller outbreaks related to romaine lettuce contaminated by different strains of E. coli had also been declared as being over. One outbreak, which was linked to Fresh Express salad kits, sickened 10 people in five states and another outbreak in Washington state sickened 11 people. The FDA says its investigation of these outbreaks allowed them to narrow down the supplier to a “single grower with multiple fields,” eventually zeroing in even further on at least 10 fields in the lower Salinas valley. The agency said it is continuing to investigate exactly how the contamination occurred with an “additional, in-depth, root-cause investigation.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5766332/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-ended/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5766332/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-ended/"},"headline":"Health Officials Say Romaine Lettuce is Safe to Eat Again as Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak has Ended","datePublished":"2020-01-16T16:38:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:04:21.482Z","description":"The US Centers for Disease Control and the US Food and Drug Administration declared that the recent nationwide E. 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