Warning: If you have store-bought chopped romaine lettuce at home, including salads and salad mixes with chopped
romaine, don’t eat it and throw it away. CDC Advice to Consumers - April 2018- Consumers anywhere in the United States who have store-bought chopped romaine lettuce at home, including salads and
salad mixes containing chopped romaine lettuce, should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and
no one has gotten sick. If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
- Before purchasing romaine lettuce at a grocery store or eating it at a restaurant, consumers should confirm with
the store or restaurant that it is not chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. If you cannot confirm
the source of the romaine lettuce, do not buy it or eat it.
- Take action(https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/foodsafety-2015/index.html) if you have symptoms of an E. coli infection:
- Talk to your healthcare provider.
- Write down what you ate in the week before you started to get sick.
- Report your illness to the health department.
- Assist
public health investigators by answering questions about your illness.
- Follow these general ways to prevent(https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/ecoli-prevention.html) E. coli infection:
- Wash your hands. Wash hands after using the restroom or changing diapers, before and after preparing or eating food,
and after contact with animals.
- Don’t prepare food or
drink for others when you are sick.
- Cook meats thoroughly
to kill harmful germs. Cook steaks and roasts to at least 145˚F and let rest for 3 minutes after you remove meat from
the grill or stove. Cook ground beef and pork to at least 160˚F. Use a food thermometer to check the temperature of the
meat.
- Don’t cross-contaminate food preparation areas.
Thoroughly wash hands, counters, cutting boards, and utensils after they touch raw meat.
- Wash fruits and vegetables before eating, unless the package says the contents have been washed.
- Avoid raw milk, other unpasteurized dairy products, and unpasteurized juices.
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Practice proper hygiene, especially good handwashing(https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/). - Wash your hands thoroughly after using the bathroom and changing diapers.
- Wash your hands thoroughly before and after preparing or eating food.
- Wash your hands thoroughly after contact with animals or their environments (at farms, petting zoos, fairs, even
your own backyard).
- Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing
and feeding bottles or foods to an infant or toddler, before touching an infant or toddler’s mouth, and before touching
pacifiers or other things that go into an infant or toddler’s mouth.
- Keep all objects that enter infants’ and toddlers’ mouths (such as pacifiers and teethers) clean.
- If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with
at least 60% alcohol (check the product label to be sure). These alcohol-based products can quickly reduce the number of germs
on hands in some situations, but they are not a substitute for washing with soap and running water.
Cook meats thoroughly: - To kill harmful germs, cook beef steaks and roasts to an internal temperature of
at least 145°F (62.6˚C) and allow to rest for 3 minutes after you remove meat from the grill or stove.
- Cook ground beef and pork to a minimum internal temperature of 160°F (70˚C).
- Always use a food thermometer to check that the meat has
reached a safe internal temperature because you can’t tell whether meat is safely cooked by looking at
its color.
Don’t cause cross-contamination
in food preparation areas. Thoroughly wash hands, counters, cutting boards, and utensils after they touch raw meat.Avoid raw milk, unpasteurized dairy products, and unpasteurized
juices(https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/raw-milk-index.html) (such as fresh apple cider).Don’t swallow water when swimming(https://www.cdc.gov/features/healthyswimming/) and when playing in lakes, ponds, streams, swimming pools, and backyard
“kiddie” pools.
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Follow the four steps to food safety(https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/groups/consumers.html) when preparing food: clean, separate, cook, and chill.
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CLEAN: Wash your hands and surfaces often. |
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SEPARATE: Don’t cross-contaminate. - Raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs can spread germs(https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foods-linked-illness.html) to ready-to-eat foods—unless you keep them separate.
- Use separate cutting boards and plates for raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
- When grocery shopping, keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and their juices away from
other foods.
- Keep raw meat,
poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from all other foods in the fridge.
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COOK: To the right temperature.- Food is safely cooked when the internal temperature
gets high enough to kill germs that can make you sick. The only way to tell if food is safely cooked is to use a food thermometer.
You can’t tell if food is safely cooked by checking its color and texture.
- Use a food thermometer to ensure foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature. Check this chart for a detailed list of foods and temperatures.
- 145°F for whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb (then allow the meat to
rest for 3 minutes before carving or eating)
- 160°F for
ground meats, such as beef and pork
- 165°F for all poultry,
including ground chicken and turkey
- 165°F
for leftovers and casseroles
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Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger
Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours. CHILL: Refrigerate promptly.- Keep your refrigerator below 40°F and know when to throw food out.
- Refrigerate
perishable food within 2 hours. (If outdoor temperature is above 90°F, refrigerate within 1 hour.)
- Thaw frozen food safely in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave.
Never thaw foods on the counter, because bacteria multiply quickly in the parts of the food that reach room temperature.
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