Federal investigators say last winter’s E. coli outbreak that originated in the Salinas Valley appears to have been caused by nearby cattle fields.
During last November and December, nearly 200 people became sick after eating romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley area.
The FDA investigation found that the illness came from a grower with multiple ranches and fields. All were located down-slope from a cattle grazing area.
The FDA considers adjacent or nearby land use for cattle grazing as the most likely contributing factor associated with the outbreaks.
