Health officials investigating the E. coli outbreak case that sickened more than 80 people late last year have traced the strain to the contaminated lettuce grown in California.

State and federal authorities investigating the outbreak at Taco John's restaurants in two states have reportedly matched the strain of the bacteria associated with the outbreak to two samples taken from dairy farms, located near lettuce fields in California's Central Valley

One of the most effective ways to avoid becoming sick is also the easiest and cheapest. Washing your hands is the simplest way to avoid infection, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say.

Among the diseases people can avoid becoming infected with by washing their hands are colds and flu, which can lead to death from pneumonia, and food borne illnesses such as salmonella and E. coli infection, which kill about 5,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control

U.S. scientists found an inventive and effective way to stop the spreading of bacteria -- paint it.

A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, found that applying a special polymer paint makes a flat surface spiky, rupturing bacteria and virus particles. This causes them to become inactive

Despite widespread criticism, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to release a preliminary safety assessment later this week stating that it would allow marketing of meat and dairy products from cloned animals for human consumption.

However, the dairy and food industries have been infuriated over the move to market cloned milk and recent consumer opinion polls also show that most Americans do not want those experimental foods

A public health expert says that the recent outbreaks of E. coli highlight the need to enforce the nation's food safety regulations. Author Dr. Robert Field, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Public Health at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia said Americans' lives depend on enforcing food regulations.

"We have come to take the safety of what we eat for granted. We know that too much fast food can kill us over time, but how many people realized that on rare occasions, it can do so much more quickly," Field in a press statement. "A tremendous amount of effort that we never see goes on in the trenches by regulators every day. It is not glamorous, but our lives can depend on it