Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
By Sept. 15, 2006, state and local agencies issued advisories. “We're telling people
if they have bagged produce and they feel like it's a risk, throw it out,” said T.J.
Bucholz, the spokesman of the Michigan Department of Community Health, “If they
feel like they have to eat it, wash it fi rst in warm water.” (Pal 2006). The Canadian
Food Inspection Agency warned against fresh spinach imported from the U.S., describ-
ing the outbreak as sickening nearly 100 people, though no cases had been reported
in Canada. “Washing the spinach won't make it safe,” announced CBC News (2006),
“ because the
E. coli
sticks to the leaves tightly.” This statement referred to Dr.
Brackett's message to the Associated Press (AP) that day when he said, “If you wash
it, it is not going to get rid of it.” The AP story also stated that federal and state health
offi cials were trying to pinpoint a source of contamination in California, where the
spinach was believed to have been grown (Bridges 2006b). In another AP report, Dr.
Acheson said health offi cials did not know of any link to a specifi c growing region,
grower, brand, or supplier. Amy Philpott, a spokeswoman for the United Fresh Produce
Association, said, “Our industry is very concerned. We're taking this very seriously
(Bridges 2006a ). ”
David Brown (2006) of the
Washington Post
speculated, “Crops such as spinach
could conceivably be contaminated by liquid fertilizer sprayed on fi elds, ” because of
the enteric nature of the bacterium.
Natural Selection Foods, LLC (2006), initiated a recall of all their products contain-
ing spinach with “Best if Used by Dates” of August 17th through October 1st after
consulting with the FDA and the California Department of Health Services. “While
neither the FDA nor the CDHS have yet determined the source of the
E. coli
problem,
we believe that recalling all spinach product packed in our facilities is the right thing
to do,” said Charles Sweat (2006) in a separate statement. “The FDA has said that
they are looking at the entire industry and we will continue to do our part in their
investigation.” Tom Stenzel, President and CEO of the United Fresh Produce
Association (2006), issued the statement, “The fresh produce industry commends the
company for taking this pro-active action to ensure consumer health. While we under-
stand that no defi nitive evidence has yet linked
E. coli
O157:H7 to a specifi c spinach
sample, we applaud the company for voluntarily recalling product to ensure the utmost
caution in protecting health.” Stenzel also said on behalf of the Association, “We
commend the FDA and industry for working together to fi rst protect public health,
and then isolate the cause of the outbreak in order to help restore confi dence in the
overall spinach industry as quickly as possible.”
Later in the day, Natural Selection Foods was linked to the outbreak through an
epidemiological study wherein victims recalled eating spinach sold by the company
under several different brands. “We are very, very upset about this,” said Natural
Selection Foods' spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna. “What we do is produce food
that we want to be healthy and safe for consumers, so this is a tragedy for us.”
The company offered refunds for spinach tossed out due to the recall or coupons to
buy new packages (Bridges 2006c). Natural Selection Foods LLC halted shipments
of all fresh spinach products and said in a statement that it was cooperating with
federal and state health offi cials to identify the source of the contamination (Bridges
2006d ).
