Spinach Recall

10/2/06 Update: The FDA has announced that fresh spinach on supermarket shelves is now safe to consume and that tainted spinach is no longer being sold. However, to be certain you are avoiding any leftover contaminated bags, do not purchase any fresh spinach with a "use by" date of October 1. In related news, the FDA has warned consumers not to drink Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice after four cases of botulism resulted from its consumption. For more information, see the FDA press release.

Last week saw bare grocery stores shelves and emptied crisper drawers across the country as the news spread that spinach has been contaminated by a particularly virulent strain of E. coli 0157 bacteria, which can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure that can be fatal. As of Monday, October 2, 26 states have reported sicknesses related to the outbreak; 187 people have been affected, 97 hospitalized (29 with HUS) and one person is dead, a 77 year-old woman in Wisconsin.

The FDA advises consumers that "the spinach implicated in the outbreak was grown in three counties: Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara in California. Spinach grown in the rest of the United States has not been implicated in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The public can be confident that spinach grown in the non-implicated areas can be consumed. Consumers are advised not to purchase or consume fresh spinach if they cannot verify that it was grown in areas other than the three California counties implicated in the outbreak." Spinach in baby food, because pre-cooked, will be safe, according to David Acheson, MD, chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), and the recall does not extend to frozen spinach either.

Women have been sickened disproportionately, making up almost three-quarters of the ill, Acheson said in a September 18 conference call. And rather than spreading widest among vulnerable groups such as the young and elderly, this outbreak has struck those in 20- to 64-year-old age range for the most part (almost 60 percent of the afflicted). Though the spinach appears to be from California, Wisconsin--with 49 cases--has by far the largest number reported, followed by Ohio with 25 and Utah with 17.

The FDA does not consider this to be a deliberate attack on the food supply and currently, the cause is unknown. Robert Brackett, Ph. D., director of CFSAN, suggested in an interview with CNN that it could be from contaminated water, animals in the field, workers, contaminated equipment or some unknown source. However, one of the FDA's areas of concern, Monterey's Salinas Valley, has chronic problems with E. coli contamination of its waterways. Working with the state's Food Emergency Response Program, the FDA is trying to pinpoint the lots and fields where the spinach grew. The all-too-aptly named Natural Selection Farms, which provides spinach for many different brands including Earthbound Farms Organic, has been at the center of this investigation.