As Annette Martin prepared a salad with Romaine lettuce, she had no way of knowing that it had been contaminated with E. coli.
She, like most other Americans, trusted that the country’s food safety system would keep her safe. But within days of eating that salad, Martin was deathly ill.
The Arizona-grown lettuce sickened 210 people in 2018. Nearly a hundred of them, including Martin, landed in the hospital. Six of them died.
Every year, foodborne illnesses sicken 50 million Americans and claim an estimated 3,000 lives.