Food Engineering features some thoughts on the recent Romaine lettuce contamination by Aaron Cohen, co-founder of CoInspect and adjunct professor at New York University where he teaches the History of Internet Media. Wayne Labs, FE senior technical editor, conducted an exclusive, one-on-one interview with Cohen, immediately following Cohen’s text. Cohen has been CEO of several technology companies including MenuPages, which was acquired by Seamless.

In mid-March, the CDC started issuing warnings about an E.Coli outbreak in romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona. As it turns out, nearly all the romaine consumed in America from November to April is grown in the Yuma region. As of this week, 121 people have reported illnesses across 25 states, with 52 people requiring hospitalization—14 with kidney failure. While, one person has died from this particular foodborne illness outbreak, food safety is an increasingly serious public health crisis. In addition to the romaine outbreak, there have been 38 food-related recalls filed with the FDA just in the month of April.