Quinte-area grocers taking precautions after E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce

At Smylie’s Your Independent Grocer in Trenton, signs have been put up in the produce section to tell customers that the romaine lettuce on the shelf is from an area unaffected by the E. coli outbreak. Photo by Connor Robinson, QNet News

By Connor Robinson, Logan Somers and Michael Sukut

TRENTON – For the fourth time in two years, there has been a North America-wide recall of romaine lettuce, and local grocers are taking steps to enforce it.

The lettuce contaminated with the E. coli bacterium was grown in Salinas, Calif. Romaine grown elsewhere is considered safe for consumption.

Smylie’s Your Independent Grocer in Trenton is one of the supermarkets in the local area that have been affected by the recall.

“Pretty much anything you could think of salad-wise in the store probably contains romaine,” store owner John Smylie told QNet News Wednesday. “We had to go through based on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recall notices that kept increasing. So we got one recall to pull romaine, and then they expanded and expanded. So it was everything that came from Salinas.

” Usually by the time a recall is issued, the affected food is already on the shevles. Grocery stores typically find out soon after a illness related to the affected food is reported. Smylie said the food is taken off the shelfs right away and a notice is made to the public. There is still romaine lettuce on the shelves at Smylie’s but it is from Yuma, Ariz.

John Smylie proprietor of Smylies Independent Grocer in Trenton. Photo by Connor Robinson, QNet News

“We make our staff aware that people will be returing romaine lettuce and be prepared for it,” he said.

Smylie recommends that everyone properly cleans and cooks the food they buy.

“Romaine or other lettuces are very very difficult to clean once you get into the head of the lettuce because they are very dense. So make sure your washing and handling the food as best you can.”

Other grocers in the area such as Dewe’s, FreshCo and Metro have also pulled the affected lettuce from the shelves.

Symptoms of E. coli include nausea, vomiting, headache, mild fever, severe stomach cramps and watery or bloody diarrhea.

So far in Canada there has only been one case of E. coli related to the outbreak in the states in the province of Manitoba. The person became ill in October.