11 replies to this topic

[doug123]

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http://www.latimes.c...-home-headlines

E. Coli Outbreak Traced to Bagged Spinach In 8 States
By Rong-Gong Lin II
Times Staff Writer

5:47 PM PDT, September 14, 2006

Washington — The Food and Drug Administration called on consumers not to eat any fresh, prepackaged spinach Thursday after officials said they identified an outbreak of E. coli that has killed a person in Wisconsin and sickened at least 48 people in eight states.

FDA official Dr. David Acheson said cases have also been identified in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico and Utah. Wisconsin was the state that was hit hardest with at least 20 cases.

Acheson said FDA officials were notified of the outbreak by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin health officials Wednesday. Acheson said the investigation appears to implicate prepackaged, prewashed spinach, but officials have not identified a specific brand yet.

[doug123]

It appears this problem has only gotten worse:

E. coli cases rise to 109 as feds announce investigation of farms

E. coli cases rise to 109 as feds announce investigation of farms
- Laura Impellizzeri, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006


(09-17) 17:37 PDT SALINAS VALLEY -- The number of people connected to an outbreak of the bacteria E. coli across the country rose to 109 Sunday, and federal authorities announced they will investigate farms in the Salinas Valley seeking evidence of what caused the outbreak.

One person, a 77-year-old woman in Wisconsin, has died, and 55 have been hospitalized in 19 states, said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer with the federal Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, part of the Food and Drug Administration. The rest were sickened by the bacteria but didn't require hospitalization.

Acheson, who called the outbreak "historically one of the larger" E. coli outbreaks ever reported, extended indefinitely the federal recommendation not to eat any fresh spinach or products that contain or are packaged with spinach that has a sell-by date of Aug. 17 through Oct. 1.

No bacteria yet have been found in any samples of bagged spinach, Acheson said. But all the people investigators have interviewed about what they ate before falling ill reported eating fresh spinach that had been packaged.

"Typically we begin with a sick patient from whom we obtain specific information that we trace back to specific farms," Acheson said.

After investigators traced the spinach back to California producer Natural Selection Foods, an arm of Earthbound Farms, they tracked where else Natural Selection had sold its spinach and products that contain spinach, he said, which led authorities to connect new brand names to the outbreak.

"Looking at their records and talking to them it was clear that they had shipped material to River Ranch," Acheson said.

The River Ranch mixed greens brands Acheson said are associated with the outbreak are HyVee, Farmers Market and Fresh and Easy. He said River Ranch planned to issue a recall Sunday evening of those mixes.

Natural Selection's spinach is sold under numerous brand names, including Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Dole, O Organic, Superior, Compliments, Trader Joe's and President's Choice. The affected products were also distributed to Canada and Mexico.

Acheson said all the farms that agents will visit Monday in connection with the outbreak are in the Salinas Valley. Authorities are continuing to investigate whether other companies and brands are involved.

The recommendation against buying fresh spinach will last until authorities have learned what caused the outbreak and how it spread, Acheson said. He predicted a jump in reported cases will come Monday and Tuesday as doctors receive results of tests completed over the weekend.

E. coli O157:H7, as the specific bacteria involved in this case is known, causes diarrhea, often containing blood. Most healthy adults recover within a week, but some develop a form of kidney failure. This severe condition is most likely to occur in young children and the elderly and can lead to kidney damage and death.

About 74 percent of the fresh market spinach grown in the United States comes from California, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Investigators were at Natural Selection's processing facility over the weekend in a probe being conducted jointly with the California Food Emergency Response Team, Acheson said.

Chlorine and cooking both can kill E. coli, but Acheson recommended not eating any fresh spinach because the bacteria can get inside the plant while it is growing or at various points while it is being processed.

In addition to processing, investigators are looking at whether irrigation or the manner of storage played a role in contaminating the spinach.

Acheson said investigators have not ruled foul play out of or into the list of possible causes of the outbreak.


URL: http://sfgate.com/cg...AGG8L7HTJ99.DTL


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©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

[Pablo M]

I eat a TON of spinach (obviously not anymore for the time being), so I've been taking lots of oregano oil and increasing vitamin C to bowel tolerance, just to be on the safe side. I don't want to die from eating healthy food.

[doug123]

I eat a TON of spinach (obviously not anymore for the time being), so I've been taking lots of oregano oil and increasing vitamin C to bowel tolerance, just to be on the safe side. I don't want to die from eating healthy food.

Okay, Popeye. Or you might consider sending a sample of your spinach to be tested at a lab before you eat it.

Popeye, in the pic below, could smell the E. coli, and was sending it back to the manufacturer:



Here's an update...it seems this problem has festered:

E. Coli Spinach Outbreak Sickens 131, FDA Reports (Update1)

Source: http://www.bloomberg...fb7wRk&refer=us
E. Coli Spinach Outbreak Sickens 131, FDA Reports (Update1)

By Margot Habiby

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Illnesses in 17 more people were blamed today on a deadly outbreak of E. coli attributed to fresh spinach, raising the number of cases nationwide to 131, U.S. food regulators and health officials said.

The outbreak has affected people in 21 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta said today. Nebraska, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Nevada and Utah all had new confirmed cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continued to warn Americans not to eat fresh spinach or products containing it because of the contamination, which killed an adult in Wisconsin and has put 66 people -- more than half of those affected -- in hospitals.

The high rate of hospitalization could be explained by an E. coli strain that is ``more virulent than normal,'' even when compared with past outbreaks, said David Acheson, chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, on a conference call with reporters today.

It's also possible ``more cases will surface, increasing the overall denominator,'' Acheson said.

Twenty people nationwide have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome, according to the National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. Seventy-three percent of the people infected from contaminated spinach were women, and 5 percent were children under 5 years old.

California

Food contamination from the strain of E. coli blamed in the current cases affects about 73,000 people a year in the U.S., according to the CDC. Bacteria may be spread by undercooked meat, contaminated fruits or vegetables, milk or juice or contact with sewage-contaminated water.

The number of cases has risen from 94 on Sept. 15.

``We're still focusing on California as the most likely source'' for the contaminated spinach, Acheson said. ``The goal of the next 24 to 48 hours is to limit it to a specific growing region in California and get spinach from other parts of the country that are not impacted back on the market.''

The FDA said yesterday it was initially looking at the Salinas Valley, about 120 miles south of San Francisco. Acheson emphasized today that other areas haven't yet been ruled out.

The FDA has recommended against consuming any type of fresh spinach or salad blends that contain fresh spinach and suggests throwing out any fresh spinach.

Cooking

The FDA's Web site notes that the E. coli strain can be killed by cooking the spinach at 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius) for 15 seconds, though it cautioned against that step because of fears of cross-contamination.

``The recommendation is not to deal with this by trying to cook your way out of it,'' Acheson said. ``The recommendation is to tough it out.''

Shy of cooking their food, there's not much consumers can do once a strain this virulent has contaminated their vegetables, he said.

``If you have bagged salads that have been already washed, the company will have already washed any material that's washable off of them,'' he said. ``Further washing pre-washed salad at home isn't advisable, because if you throw it in the sink, there's more of a chance you're going to contaminate it from the chicken you just washed. If it hasn't been washed, then, of course, wash it.''

Recalls

Natural Selection Foods LLC, which issued a recall last week for all of its spinach products with ``best if used by'' dates of Aug. 17 to Oct. 1, and River Ranch Fresh Foods LLC, which said it obtained spinach from Natural Selection, remain the only two companies to date to have issued spinach recalls.

``We're not ruling out that the recall could extend,'' Acheson said, adding that inspectors were in spinach fields in California today, conducting tests and taking samples. ``It's critical that we get our arms around this as fast as we can, and we're trying to do that.''

Natural Selection has indicated on its Web site that none of the cases have involved the consumption of organic spinach, though Acheson said the FDA couldn't rule out that organic spinach was involved in the outbreak.

Natural Selection's brands include Natural Selection Foods, Pride of San Juan, Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Dole, Rave Spinach, Emeril, Sysco, O Organic, Fresh Point, River Ranch, Superior, Nature's Basket, Pro-Mark, Compliments, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac, Jansal Valley, Cheney Brothers, Coastline, D'Arrigo Brothers, Green Harvest, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Premium Fresh, Snoboy, Farmer's Market, Tanimura & Antle, President's Choice, Cross Valley and Riverside Farms.

Canada, Mexico

Some of its products are distributed to Canada and Mexico, as well as within the U.S., the FDA said. River Ranch's brands include Farmer's Market, Hy Vee and Fresh & Easy.

Half the confirmed E. coli cases were in four states: Wisconsin, with 32; Utah, with 16; Ohio, with 15; and New York, with nine.

Indiana had eight; Kentucky, Nebraska and Pennsylvania had six each; Idaho, New Mexico and Oregon had five each; Michigan had four; Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada and Washington had two each; and California, Illinois, Virginia and Wyoming had one each.

The same strain of E. coli bacteria killed four children in the Pacific Northwest and sickened more than 700 people in 1993 in an outbreak connected to undercooked hamburgers from the fast- food chain Jack In the Box Inc.

E. coli may cause diarrhea and bloody stools and can lead to kidney failure and death, the FDA said. Most healthy adults recover from E. coli exposure within a week, though it can be deadly, especially to the young or elderly, the FDA said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: September 19, 2006 19:36 EDT

[Mind]

I think it is getting a little out of hand. The media has created a bit of mass hysteria (things like this are always taken to extreme...it is just human nature). Stores have taken every brand of spinach off the shelves...not just those from the suspected packaging plant. I like spinach. It sucks that I can't buy it. Additional ecoli cases are probably coming from other veggies or food products. It has been almost a week since this broke and you can't even buy the stuff anymore...how are peope still getting sick?

[Pablo M]

I agree, Mind. After all, there are many things that kill more people everyday than spinach does. Automobiles come to mind. But we accept those risks because the benefits outweight them. I love spinach and I miss it. I recognize that eating anything other than hermetically sealed Lil' Debbie snack cakes carries significant risks... but I'm willing to accept those risks. I want my spinach back.

[Shepard]

I recognize that eating anything other than hermetically sealed Lil' Debbie snack cakes carries significant risks.

Wait a minute, no health risk from snack cakes? Rock on.

[Pablo M]

Wait a minute, no health risk from snack cakes? Rock on.

Microbiologically speaking.

[doug123]

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

--Joseph Stalin

[doug123]

http://www.bloomberg...ilnsl4&refer=us

Another update:



FDA Isolates E. Coli Source in 3 California Counties (Update2)

By Margot Habiby

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The source of E. coli contamination in spinach that has killed one person and sickened at least 146 has been isolated in three California counties, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today.

The investigation has narrowed to Monterey, Santa Clara and San Benito counties, south of San Francisco, and federal and state officials are inspecting

``The goal is to get down to a field, if not to a spinach leaf,'' David Acheson, chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said on a conference call today with reporters.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continued to warn Americans not to eat fresh spinach or products containing it because of the contamination with a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria, which killed one adult in Wisconsin and has sent 76 people to hospitals, according to figures from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Acheson said state and federal officials met industry representatives today to come up with a way to get spinach from non-implicated areas back on the shelves as soon as possible.

``As soon as we can work out a system with industry to get spinach out on the shelves, that's going to happen,'' he said.

Arizona, Colorado

Arizona and Colorado today confirmed their first cases of E. coli linked to contaminated spinach, boosting the number of states affected to 23, CDC said. Connecticut, Kentucky, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all added new cases today. The total increased by 11 from yesterday, the CDC said.

Twenty-three people nationwide have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome, the CDC said. Seventy-one percent of those infected from contaminated spinach were women, and 5 percent were children younger than 5.

In New Mexico, the state's public health laboratory isolated a strain of the E. coli from an opened package of Dole brand baby spinach that came from the refrigerator of a patient who ate some of the contents before becoming ill, Acheson and the CDC said. The bag had a ``best if used by'' date of Aug. 30.

The information from the package matches information investigators had already received from Natural Selection, Acheson said.

Balducci, FreshPro

Food contamination from the strain of E. coli blamed in the current cases affects about 73,000 people a year in the U.S., according to the CDC. Bacteria may be spread by undercooked meat, contaminated fruits or vegetables, milk or juice or contact with sewage-contaminated water.

``This is not going to be a quick fix in terms of understanding what the problem was, what led to this and what we have to do to fix it,'' Acheson said.

A recall of fresh, bagged salad products was expanded yesterday to include products with spinach sold under the Balducci's and FreshPro brands.

The distributor of the brands -- closely held RLB Food Distributors of West Caldwell, New Jersey -- said it recalled the products because they may contain spinach supplied by Natural Selection Foods LLC, a California grower that federal officials are investigating as the source of the contamination.

The products, with ``Enjoy Thru'' dates of Sept. 20 or earlier, were distributed in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and the District of Columbia, according to a statement on the FDA's Web site.

RLB products affected by the recall include Balducci's Mesclun Mix 5 oz., Balducci's Organic Baby Spinach 5 oz., Balducci's Mixed Greens 5 oz., FreshPro Mesclun Mix 5 oz., FreshPro Organic Baby Spinach 5 oz., FreshPro Mixed Greens 5 oz., FreshPro Salad Mix with Italian Dressing 4.75 oz., and FreshPro Salad Mix with Ranch Dressing 5.25 oz., the statement said.

`No Illnesses'

``No illnesses have been reported to us as of this date from consuming these products,'' the RLB Food statement said.

The recall follows one issued by Natural Selection last week for all of its spinach products with ``best if used by'' dates of Aug. 17 to Oct. 1. A second company, River Ranch Fresh Foods LLC, issued a subsequent recall, saying it obtained spinach from Natural Selection.

Natural Selection's brands include Natural Selection Foods, Pride of San Juan, Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Dole, Rave Spinach, Emeril, Sysco, O Organic, Fresh Point, River Ranch, Superior, Nature's Basket, Pro-Mark, Compliments, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac, Jansal Valley, Cheney Brothers, Coastline, D'Arrigo Brothers, Green Harvest, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Premium Fresh, Snoboy, Farmer's Market, Tanimura & Antle, President's Choice, Cross Valley and Riverside Farms.

Canada, Mexico

Some of the company's products are distributed to Canada and Mexico, as well as within the U.S., the FDA said. River Ranch's brands include Farmer's Market, Hy Vee and Fresh & Easy.

Among the states, Wisconsin had more than twice as many cases as any other state, with 40, followed by Utah, with 16, and Ohio, with 15.

New York had nine cases, Indiana had eight and Kentucky, Nebraska and Pennsylvania each had seven. New Mexico and Oregon had five each; Arizona, Idaho and Michigan had four each; Connecticut had three; Maine, Minnesota and Washington had two; and California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Virginia and Wyoming each had one.

The same strain of E. coli bacteria killed four children in the Pacific Northwest and sickened more than 700 people in 1993 in an outbreak connected to undercooked hamburgers from the fast- food chain Jack In the Box Inc.

E. coli may cause diarrhea and bloody stools and can lead to kidney failure and death, the FDA said. Most healthy adults recover from E. coli exposure within a week, though it can be deadly, especially to the young or elderly, the FDA said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 20, 2006 20:01 EDT

[doug123]

http://today.reuters...&archived=False

Idaho boy dies after eating spinach
Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:42 PM BST

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - A 2-year-old boy who drank a spinach shake died from a suspected E. coli infection in a case that is possibly related to the nationwide health scare around spinach, a state health official said on Friday.

Kyle Allgood, of Chubbuck in the heart of Idaho's potato country, died on Wednesday night at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, said Ross Mason, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

"His mother or someone in the house made him a spinach smoothie," Mason said.

"It's pretty likely that he died of E. coli," he said. "We're looking at the link with spinach."

A nationwide outbreak of E. coli had already killed one person and made at least 157 ill -- more than 80 of them sick enough to be hospitalised. At least 23 states have been affected, including Idaho.

The outbreak has been traced to nine farms in the Salinas Valley area of central California, which grows much of the nation's spinach. Officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are trying to find the source of the bacteria.

Farmers have stopped harvesting their spinach crops and supermarkets are no longer selling the vegetable as investigators seek to find the source of the problem. The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned consumers not to eat fresh or raw spinach.

It was not clear if the child had eaten the spinach mixed with yoghurt before or after the warnings, Mason said.

The child died of haemolytic uremic syndrome, a sudden kidney failure that has been associated with E. coli 0157:H7 infection, Mason said.

Idaho officials will be talking to the family to gather more information about the illness and will be conducting tests of samples from the deceased boy.

To diagnose any foodborne illness, doctors have to test faecal samples, but often by the time a patient gets to the hospital the telltale bacteria, viruses or parasites have vanished.

But bloody diarrhoea and haemolytic uremic syndrome are hallmarks of E. coli 0157:H7, a strain of the gut bacteria that infects 73,000 people and kills 61 in the United States each year.

Idaho officials expect results of the tests by next week.



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[Brainbox]

wild pigs?

Pigs blamed for E. coli in spinach
A WILD BOAR FOUND DEAD AT SALINAS-AREA RANCH TESTS POSITIVE FOR BACTERIA THAT RUINED SPINACH
By Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News
Wild pigs are the likely culprits behind the E. coli bacteria outbreak that killed and sickened people across the country after they ate fresh, bagged spinach.

Genetics tests have found the exact strain of the deadly bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of a boar discovered dead at a Salinas-area ranch suspected as the source of the outbreak, California and federal health officials said Thursday.

The officials also said ``the outbreak appears to be over.''

Investigators had announced two weeks ago that they had matched the bacteria found in tainted bagged spinach to three samples of cattle manure in a pasture near the field. But this is the first time they have found convincing evidence of how the fields became contaminated.

Wild pigs are one ``real clear vehicle'' that could explain how E. coli spread from cattle on the ranch to the spinach field less than a mile away, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the state Department of Health Services.

He said the pigs could have tracked the bacteria into the field by smashing down fences or spread it by defecating on the spinach.

Reilly said Thursday that genetic tests also found the same strain of bacteria in a creek downstream from the spinach field as well as in four cows that graze in the nearby pasture.

But the creek, downstream from the spinach field, may have been contaminated by the pigs.

``Those wild pigs are up and down that waterway,'' he said.

The outbreak has sickened 204 people and killed three in 26 states and one in Canada. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday agreed with state health officials that there will probably be no more cases linked to the current outbreak.

Because nobody has become ill from eating spinach since Sept. 25, ``all evidence points to this outbreak having concluded,'' Reilly said.

A top FDA scientist was asked Thursday why the public should feel safe eating spinach again.

``We have no evidence to suggest people should not be eating spinach from other places -- except from these four ranches,'' said Jack Guzewich, of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. ``And they're no longer producing spinach this season.''

All of the tainted spinach was packaged at Natural Selection Foods in San Juan Bautista on the same day: Aug. 15. Investigators have tracked the lettuce packaged that day to four farms in Monterey and San Benito counties.

So far, after about 750 genetic tests, only one of those farms has tested positive for the same strain of bacteria, Reilly said.

He would not name the ranch nor say Thursday which of the two counties it is located in because investigators still have not ruled out possible contamination at the other three ranches.

Investigators have also been looking at runoff from waterways, flooding, irrigation water, compost and other wildlife as possible sources. But so far only the wild pig has been fingered in a genetic lineup.

Reilly said investigators had found evidence that the pigs had punched holes in fencing designed to protect the fields. In addition, they found pig tracks leading from the fences to the field.

``Are you shooting the pigs?'' one reporter asked him.

Reilly would say only that the state health department, FDA and growers' groups were quickly developing new ``best practices'' guidelines aimed at ensuring that produce is not contaminated. That may or may not involve hunting down pigs.

One other possible recommendation will be for farmers to put up stronger fences to keep out the wildlife, he said.

The Salinas Valley is still reeling from the outbreak, Rep. Sam Farr, D-Salinas, said in an interview this week.

``Growers are telling me that sales of all leafy greens -- not just spinach -- are down between 10 and 25 percent,'' Farr said.