Sophie Knox- Romain Lettuce

Summary: Over the past year, there has been controversy with Romain lettuce carrying E. coli infecting people. The U.S Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that it has sickened around 43 people in the states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. The FDA only now (in the past week) confirmed the outbreak even though it’s been going on for a while. They believe that, for the most part, the outbreak originated in California. The article then goes over on what E. coli is and it’s symptoms. It’s a bacterial disease that begins three-four days after consumption. The symptoms are diarrhea, cramps, fever, vomiting, and nausea and typically lasts five to seven days.


Analysis: This is not the first time Romain lettuce has sickened people. This past year my aunt has been bugging my mom to stop eating Romain lettuce (my mom has but she still jokes about eating it.)
This article appears unbiased and is an informative article who’s purpose is to warn people about the lettuce. The audience is for everyone in America and it’s historical context is the past year with this E. coli outbreak. The author is Ashley Strickland and her point of view is only fact based and has no opinions in the article, but she influences the reader into distrusting the lettuce. We can relate this story to past U.S history with past events like the E. Coli outbreaks in Jack and the Box (1993), baby spinach (2006), and Taco Bell (2006).


https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/health/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-fda-california/index.html