(Adds latest details from CDC, FDA, evidence points to California as origin)
By Gabriella Borter and Gina Cherelus
NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Romaine lettuce still had a place at the salad bars of some cafes and delicatessens in New York City on Wednesday despite a rare, nationwide U.S. public health warning for consumers to avoid eating any of it because of possible E.coli contamination.
The blanket warning, precipitated by an E.coli outbreak in 11 states and Canada that has made at least 50 people ill, was issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC and industry officials said evidence pointed to the central coast of California as the probable source of the outbreak.
Large chain grocers such as Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon.com Inc, and nationwide salad retailers such as Chopt and Fresh & Co told Reuters they stopped selling romaine as soon as the warning was issued.
But some individually owned shops said romaine was still being sold because officials had not specified the source of potentially contaminated lettuce, such as a farm or company.
"It’s up to the customers to choose to eat it or not," said Alex Hwang, manager of Dali Market in midtown Manhattan. "Whatever we have, it’s the same thing we had yesterday. They ate it, and we had no issues with it."
The CDC said at least 32 people in 11 states, including two in New York, had fallen ill from E.coli bacteria between Oct. 8 and 31. The Public Health Agency of Canada said it was investigating 18 cases of E.coli.
A total of 13 cases in the two countries resulted in hospitalizations. No deaths have been reported.
Both the U.S. and Canadian alerts, coming as millions of Americans planned their Thanksgiving Day menus, urged consumers, restaurants and retailers to throw out all romaine left in stock and sanitize their shelves.
Given the early October onset of the first illnesses reported, the tainted romaine in all likelihood originated from California, which ranks as the leading producer of American lettuce, FDA spokesman Peter Cassell told Reuters on Wednesday.
EXPIRED AND DISAPPEARED
On Wednesday, Reuters visited nine independently owned delis and cafes in midtown Manhattan, where salad bar lines at lunchtime are typically long. All but one were selling romaine lettuce, some of which had been delivered on Wednesday.
"No one came by and told us. We didn’t know,” Irivia Spivey, a salad tosser at Mamaroo, a Korean cafe, said as her manager stood by.
A sample by Reuters of 12 grocers and supermarkets in Chicago, Detroit and Denver found that romaine had been removed from their shelves.