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Comment by garysahota93 | Hacker News Reader

It seems like this happens all the time. I really wonder what the implications of this will be to companies like Chipotle, who use Romaine Lettuce exclusively. Personally, I am more of a fan of Iceberg, but it just makes me wonder why E. Coli is much more common in Romaine than in Iceberg. Any thoughts?

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> wonder why E. Coli is much more common in Romaine than in Iceberg. Any thoughts?

Romain grows in sprouts while iceberg grows round, effectively in its own shell

> Personally, I am more of a fan of Iceberg,

The U.S. shifted from Iceberg to more Romaine as a way to have more flavor, nutrition in their lettuce than mostly water.

Is there a reason that Chipotle doesn't just switch to some other type of lettuce? Surely the minor difference in what's essentially a filler ingredient doesn't compare to the financial loss that yet another e.coli outbreak with Chipotle's name on it would incur.

Would other types of lettuce be any less susceptible to E. coli?

IIRC the past few outbreaks have only been for romaine lettuce. Iceberg and green leaf seem to be have relatively fewer incidents, though I'm not sure if this is due to something about the supply source, the way it's used, or the way it's grown.

My guess is that more folds make it harder to clean properly.

I wonder if there could be a good tech solution where lettuce samples would be tested s part of the packaging pipeline.

I think the fundamental problem is that these bacteria are detected by growing a sample, which takes a day or longer.

Forcing workers to drag a "porta potty" through lettuce fields so farmers don't have to pay for the restroom breaks could be causing this.

http://crownservicesco.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ag-and...

If I was a farm worker I wouldn't be too upset about not having to go perhaps a long ways to use a restroom and be able to clean my hands afterwards.

If you were a farm worker who was paid piece rates rather than hourly, you might be less happy about that

Why? Not having to walk across a field saves them time, so they can spend more time harvesting, so they make more money.

Outrage notwithstanding, the last couple of these have been caused by water contaminated with animal feces.

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