The Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate multiple outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, many with the source of the pathogens unknown.
However, for the first time the agency is reporting that romaine lettuce was the vehicle of an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7. The FDA first posted the outbreak on July 1. As of Sept. 10, there were 14 confirmed patients. The FDA did not report the patients’ ages or where they live.
There are likely many more patients who were not included in the count. This is because some patients do not seek medical attention and others are not specifically tested for E. coli infection. According to the CDC, for every patient identified in an E. coli outbreak there are 26 who go undetected.
According to the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated the outbreak and determined that romaine lettuce was the cause of the illnesses. The FDA reports that the CDC declared the outbreak over on July 29. The FDA says that by the time romaine lettuce was identified as the likely source of the outbreak it was beyond its shelf life.
Neither the FDA nor the CDC reported the name of the grower of the implicated romaine.
Seattle food safety expert and attorney Bill Marler said transparency should be the driver in such situations.
“I generally come down on the side of transparency,” Marler said. “If one grower or processor is determined, they should be named. I can understand, though, if there are multiple processors or growers, that is a different situation because all of them may not be responsible.”
In other outbreak news, the FDA reports that the patient count for an outbreak of Salmonella Newport has increased to 109, up from 97 a week ago. The agency has not reported the patients’ ages or where they live.
The source of the pathogen has not yet been identified. The FDA has begun traceback efforts, but is not reporting what food it is tracing. The outbreak was first posted by the FDA on August. 26.
An outbreak Salmonella Enteritis infections traced to eggs has been declared over. A total of 134 patients across 18 states were identified. Illnesses started on dates ranging from Nov. 21, 2025, to Aug. 12, 2026. Of 54 patients with information available, 46 reported eating eggs before becoming ill. There have been 34 hospitalizations. No deaths have been reported.
The outbreak investigation determined that eggs from Midwest Poultry Services LP in Texas were the vehicle for the pathogen. The FDA collected samples from the farm and three matched the outbreak strain of Salmonella.
