From March to April 2018, FDA and CDC investigators discovered that several hospital admissions were caused by tainted romaine lettuce.
The big problem they faced was they didn’t know where the bad lettuce was coming from and where it had ended up. They tried to find the source but hit a wall.
“Grocery stores might not keep the box that has the labels from the distribution center was or where the grower was. And right now, without that box, many stores don’t have a record of where the food product came from.”
Supermarket corporate buyers ran a trace of the infected lettuce to find its source. But this task took weeks because of the manual nature of the investigation process. By that time, their reputation had taken a blow and more people became sick.
Food safety is mostly a manual process – even in developed countries. Hospitals report the foodborne illness to health boards who then investigate potential hotspots in the form of restaurants and food stores.