Romaine Calm: A Thanksgiving Food Safety Success Story

It’s Thanksgiving week and, while there are certainly plenty of negative stories related to foodborne outbreaks, you may have noticed that you haven’t seen any news about romaine lettuce recalls this year. Unfortunately, these types of recalls and advisories were common around this time in years past—but not over the last few years.

Between 2009 and 2018, the FDA and CDC identified 40 foodborne outbreaks of Shiga toxin–producing E. coli (STEC) infections in the U.S. with a confirmed or suspected link to leafy greens. Many of these outbreaks occurred year after year around this same timeframe.

In fact, right before the Thanksgiving holiday in 2018, a large outbreak resulted in a nationwide advisory to avoid eating any romaine lettuce, regardless of source or origin. This happened at a time when Americans were gathering around the dinner table for a celebration centered on food.

So why is it that, in recent Thanksgiving seasons, romaine lettuce has not been in the news?

I call it the Anonymity of Prevention. And, importantly, I don’t believe this has happened by chance.

I believe it’s the result of collaborative action taken by stakeholders to implement the measures outlined in the FDA’s Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan, which we unveiled while I was at the Agency. That plan rallied industry, academia, and regulators to work together. It elevated awareness of what we had learned from recurring outbreaks and provided a call to action—such as placing greater focus on the safety of pre-harvest agricultural water, including proper treatment, as well as paying closer attention to adjacent land use, especially when animal livestock operations were nearby.

At that time, as Deputy Commissioner, I also asked the FDA to declare a recurring, persistent strain of E. coli O157:H7 from a region in California as a “reasonably foreseeable hazard,” which got everyone’s attention and helped sharpen focus.

So today, I want to give a big “Thank You” to everyone involved—especially growers and food processors—who have made such meaningful food-safety enhancements over the years.

It’s a significant achievement: several consecutive years with romaine lettuce safely remaining on the Thanksgiving menu.

And don’t worry—I get it. When it comes to producing safe food, past success is no guarantee of future success. Food safety requires doing things the right way, every day. So let’s all stay laser-focused on continual improvement and prevention.

However, today I want to celebrate this accomplishment and say “Thank You” to the dedicated men and women in our food and agricultural sector who make a safe Thanksgiving possible.

Together, we can bend the curve of foodborne illness so consumers can live better, healthier lives.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Frank