F.D.A. Warns of Outbreak and Not to Eat Spinach

[mzteris]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Consumers should avoid eating fresh bagged spinach after an outbreak of E. coli in eight states killed one person and sickened at least 49, federal health officials announced Thursday night.

. . . State and federal health officials have used genetic screening tools to confirm that all 50 people sickened by the disease suffered from the same bacteria, said Dr. David Acheson of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the F.D.A.

. . . Dr. Acheson described the outbreak as “significant.” It is broadly distributed across the country. Twenty cases — including the only confirmed death — occurred in Wisconsin. There were 11 cases in Utah, 5 in Oregon, 4 in Indiana, 3 each in Idaho and Michigan, 2 in New Mexico and 1 in Connecticut, he said.

. . . But Dr. Acheson advised consumers to avoid bagged spinach altogether, although he noted that thorough cooking killed the bacteria.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/us/15spinach.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


*****

Great. Just Great.

We had "bagged spinach" tonight. I washed it, yeah, but . . . it wasn't cooked. (And I'm in Wisconsin now.

YIKES!

[flamingyouth]

1. We eat bagged spinach all the time.

I wash it but still... ugh. :(

[Coventina]

2. The friggin' cattle industry manages to screw it up for all of us.

At least, that's what I read somewhere, that these e coli outbreaks are the result of diseased cows.

Improperly raised cattle leave behind diseased dung which is used as fertilizer to grow crops.

No avoiding the horrors of the cattle industry, apparently.

:mad: