The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning you to avoid romaine lettuce grown in Salinas, California, as they investigate a possible E. coli outbreak that has left 40 people across 12 states sick. It's also recommended that you not eat romaine lettuce if you can't determine where it was grown.
Romaine has been the identified as the culprit in several food poisoning outbreaks, but health officials are not certain why this type of lettuce is so often involved in making people sick. One possibility is that the risk is greater for produce grown in open fields and eaten raw.
The FDA has not offered any other specifics about the current investigation other than to say evidence has led them to farms in Salinas.