E. coli still haunts desert romaine lettuce season
Lettuce growers in the desert valleys of the U.S. Southwest will face more federal scrutiny during the winter growing season, in hope of preventing the type of contamination with E. coli bacteria that killed five people and sickened 205 others this year.
The Food and Drug Administration for the first time will routinely test samples of romaine coming from the lower Colorado River area in Arizona and California, which will begin its harvest this month and continue through April.
Growers in both states also
