At least you have an excuse now to avoid eating salad.

In an unusually wide-ranging health alert, the US government is warning people to avoid eating any romaine lettuce, in any form, from any source, because of an outbreak of E. coli infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 32 people have been sickened in 11 states, including 13 who had to be hospitalized with kidney failure, because of what has now been determined to be the same strain of the bacteria.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency doesn’t have enough information to ask suppliers for a specific recall and is thus asking restaurants to stop serving all romaine immediately as the infected lettuce is still on the market.

The CDC said people should throw out any romaine in their refrigerators, even if they already ate some and didn’t get sick.

“This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad,” the CDC said in a written statement.

The current strain has the “same DNA fingerprint” as the E. coli behind a deadly outbreak in 2017 linked to tainted leafy greens.

It is different, however, from the strain behind a rash of tainted romaine earlier this year that was traced back to farms in Yuma, Ariz. That outbreak sickened 200 and killed five.

The first recorded illness linked to the new romaine strain came on Oct. 8 and the most recent came on Oct. 31, though the CDC fears the outbreak is not over.

This new warning is broader and more direct than ones issued in the earlier outbreaks, according to Robert Whitaker, chief science officer for the Produce Marketing Association.

Whitaker said the industry group told members they should cooperate with the FDA and stop supplying romaine lettuce, especially since people have been told to stop buying it.

With Wires