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How can you avoid E.Coli outbreak? Buy local

Knowing where your food is coming from can keep you and your family safe

BURTON, Ohio — The CDC is investigating an outbreak of E. Coli affecting five states, including Ohio.

We don't know what food source is causing the E. Coli outbreak, so the CDC can't issue a specific warning.  

What we do know is that according to the CDC, leafy greens cause about a fifth of all foodborne illnesses. You'll remember the Romaine lettuce ban from last year.  

But there is a way to add your own measure of food safety: Buy local meats and produce. 

E.Coli is a naturally occurring bacteria, so it's no surprise that it can easily get into leafy greens if water is contaminated with livestock or bird feces, if farm equipment wasn't sanitized, or if workers in the field, distribution site, or packaging facility didn't practice good hand hygiene. 

Finding the source is difficult, according to John Bonner, owner of Great Lakes Growers in Burton. 

"You're trying to figure out what's the common thread," he explains. "From there, backtracking it to all the people that touched the food, from the growers to the handlers, and then trying to find what the problem is. It takes weeks or months."

That's why it's important to know where your food is coming from. 

"The only way that you can be safe is to know who's growing your food, when it was grown, where it was grown, who packed it, who handled it, how did it get to the store. All those things," says Bonner. 

If you're not going to grow it yourself, support local farmers and the economy by buying local. Check with your local grocery chain or shop your local farmer's market. 

There's a big safety benefit, says Bonner.  

"We know exactly which Heinens stores its going to, which restaurant in Cleveland, Akron, or Canton. And if there's a problem we can check our food safety records within a day," he tells us. 

The 80,000 square foot greenhouse of Great Lakes Growers supplies local grocery stores with lettuce and herbs all grown in water, not soil. Because it's indoors, there's no need for pesticides. The well water is treated with oxygen to destroy bacteria. 

The produce arrives in stores in less than two days from harvest. Because for Bonner and his company, food safety is paramount in order to survive. 

"For us it's a liability. If we had something like that (E.Coli outbreak) happen to us, as small as we are, we'd go out of business from the cash flow hit or reputational hit," Bonner says. 

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