Over the last few weeks as Ohio, Michigan and New York health officials (along with the CDC) have tracked the source of the ongoing E. coli O145 outbreak to lettuce that has sickened over 50 people near college campuses at The Ohio State in Columbus, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Daemen College in Buffalo, we have been fielding phone calls from potentially ill students.
It appears that in the next few hours the link to the E. coli O145 illnesses will be announced as Freshway Foods. However, it does not seem likely that where the lettuce was grown, or how it made its way to Freshway, will be determined – at least at this point. Given the distribution map at Freshway, one can see the likely link: