Dodge E. Coli: Throw Away Your Spinach

[Janice]

Dodge E. Coli: Throw Away Your Spinach

Health Officials and Experts Advise Ditching Spinach Packages as E. Coli Cases Spread

Sept. 15, 2006 — - It doesn't matter what brand of spinach. It doesn't matter how long it's been sitting in the refrigerator. If it comes in bag, the Food and Drug Administration is strongly encouraging consumers, from coast to coast, to throw it out.

Federal officials blame the bagged, grocery store spinach for what has now turned into a massive E.Coli outbreak, responsible for hospitalizing residents in at least 20 states. (So far, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming,).

One person has died, a 77-year old woman in Wisconsin. Hundreds of people have fallen seriously ill. There have been at least 14 cases of kidney failure.

Dr. David Acheson, with the Center for Food and Safety and Applied Nutrition says, "the cases are increasing by the day."

"We may be at the peak and we may not. I don't know," he says. "It is all preliminary data."

The FDA has identified the strain of E. coli as O151:H7, and a typical infection takes a few days to develop and nearly two weeks to pass. It causes severe abdominal cramping and bloody diarrhea. In some cases, it can be fatal.

Dr. Michael Donnenberg heads the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland, and says he wouldn't eat any packaged spinach of any kind, and wouldn't advise anyone else to do so either.

"This is an unusual thing," he says. "By now, investigators would normally be able to tell us what lot the spinach came from or what the packaging looked like. At this point, they've usually been able to take cultures of samples that were still sitting somewhere in the victim's home."

None of that has happened, and Donnenberg says that means the FDA is most likely confused and still trying to figure it out. He believes that in the end it will come down to a cow.

"Most likely," he says, the source is "fertilizer, from cow manure."

"And hopefully," the source is "outside the plant," he added, "because if the exposure took place inside a vegetable processing plant, it's extremely hard to track and contain."

This same strain of E. coli was responsible for an outbreak in Minnesota in September 2005. At least 11 people became ill. No one knows how many consumers failed to report illnesses. The outbreak was immediately linked to prepackaged Dole salads with lettuce, cabbage and carrots.

The vegetables in the Minnesota case came from the Salinas Valley, in central California. Among growers, the valley is often called the "salad bowl of the world," for its millions of pounds of annual produce production.

The region does have its issues. Vegetables grown in the valley have been connected to at least eight E. coli outbreaks since 1995. Federal health authorities are there now, inspecting farms and processing plants.

Experts say what makes these types of investigations difficult is that it only takes a minuscule amount of E. coli contamination to trigger an outbreak. Finding the source for such a small amount of contamination is tricky at best.

What makes it even more difficult for consumers is there's little a person can do to clean lettuce or spinach that has been contaminated with E. coli. The FDA says it's not enough to wash or even cook vegetables if they've been contaminated. The only effective preventive measure is to discard produce that fits the established profile.

Dr. Robert Schooley, a researcher of infectious diseases and a professor at the University of California at San Diego, says this time federal health officials may not ever be able to identify the source of the E. coli contamination.

"The cases of infection are so widespread across the country, and E. coli is so ubiquitous in the environment, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't ever figure it out."

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

[TJL]

How ironic. I bought a bag of spinach at the supermarket on Sunday.

I chucked what was left of it in the trash this afternoon.

[Brent88]

This has really escalated today. The number of cases and states has almost tripled.

Glad I don't eat that stuff, but it leaves me wondering. What about other bagged produce?

CNN just reported the FDA has linked it to "Natural Selection Foods".

[James"Thunder"Early]

I remember a couple of years ago, the same thing happened with bagged romaine lettuce. Bagged produce is something people should be very careful about, a lot of times it's not handled properly. In this case, it was probably manure but sometimes of it can pick up germs in processing.

[theshark8777]

I hope Popeye is okay.

[dlemond]

Originally Posted by theshark8777

I hope Popeye is okay.

At least he's strong to the finish.

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by _Jen_

It's good that I don't like spinach so I don't eat it.

Me, too. But I do like romaine lettuce.

[Mr. Stefani]

so glad i ate spinach yesterday

[TVFactFan]

I guess I have nothing to worry about since I hate Vegetables-lol

[KristinHerreraFan]

Jack in the Box had the biggest E. Coli Litigation Outbreak in 1992 infecting over 500 people due to tainted meat in their supply.

[theshark8777]

I remember that, I thought it was 1993 though.

[staypuftman2004]

Originally Posted by theshark8777

I hope Popeye is okay.