CDC Warns: Don’t Eat Romaine Lettuce

Whatever you have planned for Thanksgiving--or before or after--make sure romaine lettuce is not on the menu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wednesday afternoon released an unusually broad alert, telling consumers not to eat the leafy green in any form, whole, chopped, fresh, or bagged, due to the threat of E.coli contamination.

You shouldn't buy it, restaurants shouldn't serve it, and retailers shouldn't sell it, effective immediately. What we all should do, the agency says, is toss it--and not in a salad.

As of today, romaine is blamed for 32 cases of E.coli across 11 states, including two cases in Massachusetts. Since the exact source of the bad food can't yet be identified, all of it is suspect. So it's better to be safe than possibly very,very sorry.