FDA lifts consumer ban on most fresh spinach

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted its 2-week-old consumer warning on most fresh spinach Friday, revising the alert to say it now covers only specific brands packaged on certain dates.

The warning now applies only to spinach recalled earlier this month by Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista and four other companies that it supplied, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the California health department.

A week ago, the FDA had said it was safe to eat spinach grown anywhere outside of three Salinas Valley counties, and some stores began restocking. But Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said Friday that only spinach that already had been recalled shouldn't be eaten. Other spinach "is as safe as it was before this event," Acheson said.

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted its 2-week-old consumer warning on most fresh spinach Friday, revising the alert to say it now covers only specific brands packaged on certain dates.

The warning now applies only to spinach recalled earlier this month by Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista and four other companies that it supplied, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the California health department.

A week ago, the FDA had said it was safe to eat spinach grown anywhere outside of three Salinas Valley counties, and some stores began restocking. But Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said Friday that only spinach that already had been recalled shouldn't be eaten. Other spinach "is as safe as it was before this event," Acheson said.

And when can we expect the FDA to explain how the spinach got contaminated by bacteria living in feedlot cows in the first place? I understand the concern, but this is neither the first case of E.coli in leafy vegetable this summer (the FDA has been investigating another valley in Cali throughout the summer) nor is it in any way normal to find food-borne diseases on plants. How about fixing the cause rather than trying to act after the fact.

[almaty 19]

popeye is delighted, i hear

[peejay 327]

Eating raw spinach is about like eating raw oysters...do so at your own risk!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And when can we expect the FDA to explain how the spinach got contaminated by bacteria living in feedlot cows in the first place? I understand the concern, but this is neither the first case of E.coli in leafy vegetable this summer (the FDA has been investigating another valley in Cali throughout the summer) nor is it in any way normal to find food-borne diseases on plants. How about fixing the cause rather than trying to act after the fact.

Good question. I thought that E. Coli only exists in the fecal matter of animals that are not herbivores. I used to have a composter and I remember I could put cow manure or horse manure, but not dog or human feces in it because of pathogens. So my guess is the E. Coli had to have come from a human source, unless they are still doing that practice of feeding cattle, parts of other cows (which is how mad cow disease is spread).

[meauxna 15]

WooHoo! Guess what's for dinner again!!

Buy local & buy organically grown. Unless you live in the Salinas Valley.

PS: Fischkoepfin, you know what 'liquid fertilizer' is, right? <g>

[I'm Gone 60]

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted its 2-week-old consumer warning on most fresh spinach Friday, revising the alert to say it now covers only specific brands packaged on certain dates.

I guess now you can go back to worrying about global warming. LOL

[Fischkoepfin 1]

WooHoo! Guess what's for dinner again!!

Buy local & buy organically grown. Unless you live in the Salinas Valley.

PS: Fischkoepfin, you know what 'liquid fertilizer' is, right? <g>

Of course. But liquid fertilizer is not the problem in this case, but rather a contamination of the water supply by upstream feedlots. Why else would all of Salinas Valley be implicated in this matter?

[Mirorgate 0]

WooHoo! Guess what's for dinner again!!

Buy local & buy organically grown. Unless you live in the Salinas Valley.

PS: Fischkoepfin, you know what 'liquid fertilizer' is, right? <g>

Of course. But liquid fertilizer is not the problem in this case, but rather a contamination of the water supply by upstream feedlots. Why else would all of Salinas Valley be implicated in this matter?

Have heard different news reports that the specualtion was from unsanitary conditions for crop pickers, though I can not claim the truth to that as it was only speculation by the news crew at the time.

[Fischkoepfin 1]

And when can we expect the FDA to explain how the spinach got contaminated by bacteria living in feedlot cows in the first place? I understand the concern, but this is neither the first case of E.coli in leafy vegetable this summer (the FDA has been investigating another valley in Cali throughout the summer) nor is it in any way normal to find food-borne diseases on plants. How about fixing the cause rather than trying to act after the fact.

Good question. I thought that E. Coli only exists in the fecal matter of animals that are not herbivores. I used to have a composter and I remember I could put cow manure or horse manure, but not dog or human feces in it because of pathogens. So my guess is the E. Coli had to have come from a human source, unless they are still doing that practice of feeding cattle, parts of other cows (which is how mad cow disease is spread).

E. coli lives in the intestines of mammals, but that is not necessarily bad. The problem is that the virulent strain of E. coli present in this and other cases is a mutation related to feeding practices (and as I personally suspect, a result of the practices of giving antibiotics to healthy cows. Most organisms adapt to antibiotics after a while, creating so-called super-bacteria which cannot be defeated by standard means). Grass-fed cows don't have it.

The reason you don't add excrements of carnivores to your compost are twofold: They are high in fat, which is detrimental to the composting process and attacks rats (hence, you also don't put prepared food-leftovers or household fats in it). Second, carnivores carry a number of parasites, particularly tape worms and the like, which are potentially lethal to human bodies

I have been aware of these problems for a while, as I am quite interested in microbiology and epidemology. However, I read this op-ed piece the other week, which sheds some light on the matter:

September 21, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor

Leafy Green Sewage

By NINA PLANCK

FARMERS and food safety officials still have much to figure out about the recent spate of E. coli infections linked to raw spinach. So far, no particular stomachache has been traced to any particular farm irrigated by any particular river.

There is also no evidence so far that Natural Selection Foods, the huge shipper implicated in the outbreak that packages salad greens under more than two dozen brands, including Earthbound Farm, O Organic and the Farmer’s Market, failed to use proper handling methods.

Indeed, this epidemic, which has infected more than 100 people and resulted in at least one death, probably has little do with the folks who grow and package your greens. The detective trail ultimately leads back to a seemingly unrelated food industry — beef and dairy cattle.

First, some basic facts about this usually harmless bacterium: E. coli is abundant in the digestive systems of healthy cattle and humans, and if your potato salad happened to be carrying the average E. coli, the acid in your gut is usually enough to kill it.

But the villain in this outbreak, E. coli O157:H7, is far scarier, at least for humans. Your stomach juices are not strong enough to kill this acid-loving bacterium, which is why it’s more likely than other members of the E. coli family to produce abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever and, in rare cases, fatal kidney failure.

Where does this particularly virulent strain come from? It’s not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of grass, hay and other fibrous forage. No, O157 thrives in a new — that is, recent in the history of animal diets — biological niche: the unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical ration on most industrial farms. It’s the infected manure from these grain-fed cattle that contaminates the groundwater and spreads the bacteria to produce, like spinach, growing on neighboring farms.

In 2003, The Journal of Dairy Science noted that up to 80 percent of dairy cattle carry O157. (Fortunately, food safety measures prevent contaminated fecal matter from getting into most of our food most of the time.) Happily, the journal also provided a remedy based on a simple experiment. When cows were switched from a grain diet to hay for only five days, O157 declined 1,000-fold.

This is good news. In a week, we could choke O157 from its favorite home — even if beef cattle were switched to a forage diet just seven days before slaughter, it would greatly reduce cross-contamination by manure of, say, hamburger in meat-packing plants. Such a measure might have prevented the E. coli outbreak that plagued the Jack in the Box fast food chain in 1993.

Unfortunately, it would take more than a week to reduce the contamination of ground water, flood water and rivers — all irrigation sources on spinach farms — by the E-coli-infected manure from cattle farms.

The United States Department of Agriculture does recognize the threat from these huge lagoons of waste, and so pays 75 percent of the cost for a confinement cattle farmer to make manure pits watertight, either by lining them with concrete or building them above ground. But taxpayers are financing a policy that only treats the symptom, not the disease, and at great expense. There remains only one long-term remedy, and it’s still the simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle.

California’s spinach industry is now the financial victim of an outbreak it probably did not cause, and meanwhile, thousands of acres of other produce are still downstream from these lakes of E. coli-ridden cattle manure. So give the spinach growers a break, and direct your attention to the people in our agricultural community who just might be able to solve this deadly problem: the beef and dairy farmers.

Nina Planck is the author of “Real Food: What to Eat and Why.’’

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Source

[meauxna 15]

Fischkoepfin, thanks for that article & sorry for being too flip. I've been interested in this story, but I gave up on it in early days (once I was sure I wasn't dying & there was no new news).

"There remains only one long-term remedy, and it’s still the simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle."

I totally agree--actually, I'd go a step further and start really talking about factory farming--of animals AND food.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

WooHoo! Guess what's for dinner again!!

Buy local & buy organically grown. Unless you live in the Salinas Valley.

PS: Fischkoepfin, you know what 'liquid fertilizer' is, right? <g>

Of course. But liquid fertilizer is not the problem in this case, but rather a contamination of the water supply by upstream feedlots. Why else would all of Salinas Valley be implicated in this matter?

Yes. I just read that E. Coli can be spread through contaminated water that the cattle drink and then into the crops.

[Nizzy 1]

I think I am still going to avoid it...although salads aren't the same with out 'em! I am going to wait a little while longer just to make sure things are really safe as they claim.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Yeah, it's kinda like holding off on that upgrade until enough other schmucks have been burned by it first and the vendor puts out a fixpack.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I remember the grocers were selling a veggie wash for awhile...I haven't seen it lately but it suppose to effectively remove bacteria from the fresh vegetables.

Or just cook the spinach - which is delicious also!