Jungle Jim's pulls romaine lettuce from restaurants amidst E. coli warnings

Despite no formal recall of romaine lettuce, Jungle Jim's Eatery has decided to pull the leafy greens from menus in all 26 of its locationsjust in case.

The move comes in response to a notice issued by the Public Health Agency of possible E.colicontamination in some romaine lettuce.

As of Dec. 28,there are 41cases of E.colirelated illnesses under investigation, including 13 from Newfoundland and Labrador. One person hasdied but their location was not specified. The source of the contamination is still unknown.

• Public Health Notice Outbreak of E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce

Dwayne Legge, special projects manager with Jungle Jim's, saidin matters like these it's always better to be safe than sorry.

"Our ultimate concern is our guests safety," said Legge. "So we will obviously continue to have it removed from our restaurants until we're comfortable that there is no risk involved or we've received notice that there is no other safety concerns."

Sysco, the food distributor Jungle Jim's Eatery and many other Atlantic Canadian restaurants, issued anemail statement on Friday morningto CBCNews to acknowledgethat the company is keeping a close eye on the E. coli warnings.

"Sysco is aware of the notice made by thePublic Health Agency of Canada, advising people in eastern Canada to consider avoiding romaine lettuce, andwe are closely monitoring the situation," the statement read.

Sobeysalso chose to erron the side of caution, pullingnearly 300 romaine lettuce products from its grocery store shelves just before the Christmas holidays.

• Sobeys halts sale of romaine lettuce after E. coli warning
• 21 cases of E. coli linked to romaine lettuce confirmed in N.L., N.B. and Quebec

Jungle Jim's saidthe move will affectsome customers but overall the response to the menu change has been supportive.

"We've been getting a lot of positive feedback and guests saying that its nice to see that we're putting their interests first," Legge said.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada website, the search for answersinto the E. coli outbreak is ongoing. It promisesto provide the public with updates as the investigation continues.