Fresh Spinach From California Recalled

WASHINGTON — A California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach Wednesday after it tested positive for salmonella.

There were no immediate reports of illness linked to the tainted spinach, distributed by Metz Fresh LLC of King City, Calif. The recall comes nearly a year after an outbreak of another pathogen, E. coli, in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened another 200.

The recalled spinach was distributed throughout the 48 states and Canada and sold in both retail and food service packages. It covers 8,118 cases of spinach, although the company said more than 90 percent of that was on hold and would not be released.

While only a single sample from one of three packing lines tested positive for salmonella, the company said it moved to recall all the spinach packed that same day as a precaution.

The recall covers 10- and 16-ounce bags, as well as 4-pound cartons and cartons that contain four 2.5-pound bags, with the following tracking codes: 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.

I don’t see where they even considered the workers as a possibility of contagion. Shouldn’t they have tested the workers to see if they carried the same strain of E. Coli ?

The report noted an abnormal # of absentees from work a week or two previous to the time the contaminated spinach was processed. That would indicate that the investigators were considering the possibility of the workers being somewhere in the loop. Absent medical records & cultures, and given the time lag, possibly there was no way to determine the reason they were sick...if that was the case. A good number may have played hookey, have been hungover... Another indicator is that evidently none of them were hospitalized; as I recall, about a third of the documented cases were hospitalized.

An important point, not to be overlooked, is that the E coli was not 'on' the spinach. It was within the structure of the plant. That would eliminate the possibility (almost completely) of the spinach having been contaminated during harvesting or processing. And it is a very strong indicator of soil and/ or water contamination being the source. That's the Really Big Spook Factor. And that's the reason that I planted my first garden this summer after a 15 year layoff from veggie gardening.

Getting back to the workers--IF any of them were determined to have been sickened by the E coli, then it would need to be determined where they picked up the bug--possibly from being exposed to the spinach/ soil?

Sounds like sloppy science for reasons of political correctness.

I disagree. The investigators were trying to reconstruct an historic event. Pieces of the puzzle are just gone and it is impossible to get them back and, when it comes to ground water movements & knowing exactly where all the water came from, very difficult to determine even as a contemporary event. There just are some things that can't be known.

Given the surging expansion of the cattle/ dairy industry in CA, the produce industy and the water situ in the state, no one should be all that surprised when this happens. I'm sufficiently spooked to have given over a good chunk of my lawn because of it.

“... a very strong indicator of soil and/ or water contamination being the source.”

You mean the ‘most immediate’ source. The question would still be where did the E. Coli in the water come from ? It could have come from pigs or workers defacating in among the spinach and irrigation water spreading it to the plantings. Except they looked for pig tracks and didn’t find any. They didn’t seem to consider the workers defacating in the fields. Why not, if not for reasons of political correctness ?

I notice you didn’t mention on other possible reason for the absentee workers — they were illegals and afraid the investigation might look too closely into the workers’ backgrounds.

Depending on what part of the world people came from, they might not even realize there was anything wrong with using fields as toilets. Human waste is STILL used as fertilizer in parts of Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

The question would still be where did the E. Coli in the water come from ? It could have come from pigs or workers defacating in among the spinach and irrigation water spreading it to the plantings.

The report addresses that question. The likely source was the cattle crossing the river at one of the numerous cattle crossings noted in the report and leached into the underground water & into the ungrouted irrigation wells.

Except they looked for pig tracks and didn’t find any.

After the fact. No pig tracks on a dried up patch of dirt where the spinach had been planted, grown, & harvested. Not a big surprise since there wasn't anything to eat in the field. But, both pig & cattle manure in the adjacent pasture did test positive for that specific sub-strain/ fingerprint of the 0157:H7 E coli bacteria identified in the outbreak. And those cattle had access to the river & crossed it at numerous points.

I notice you didn’t mention on other possible reason for the absentee workers — they were illegals and afraid the investigation might look too closely into the workers’ backgrounds.

You're referring to an event that was weeks before the investigators were on the scene. Of course the workers, legal, illegal, otherwise were absent--the field had been harvested.

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