Canadian officials recalled romaine and iceberg lettuce sent to KFC and Taco Bell on Monday that is believed to be the source of an E. coli contamination in the country.
KFC and Taco Bell restaurants in locations including; New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec have been warned to remove the lettuce from their food offerings to customers.
As a precaution, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is working with FreshPoint Inc. to recall any remaining affected products from these restaurants.
The original source for the lettuce has not been revealed. However, a consumer question and answer page about the recalled lettuce set up by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency states that "lettuce entering Canada from California must be certified under the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement."
The expanded recall on the CFIA website lists 13 Sysco brand foodservice salad products, as well as two products for use by Burger King, one product for Pizza Hut, one for KFC's parent company YUM and one product with the FreshPoint Inc. brand. All of those products have use-by dates of Jan. 8 and 10.
The outbreak has yielded 26 total cases thus far. These individuals became ill between late December and early January.
President and CEO of KFC and Taco Bell's parent company Yum! Brands reaffirmed to customers that their food is safe to eat.
"We're obviously concerned ... We have removed all the affected lettuce from our restaurants in Canada and want to reassure our customers that our food is perfectly safe to eat. The health and safety of our customers is our top priority, said Sabir Sami in a statement.
