Spinach
Last night I thought about making a post, where I made fun of the spinach recall. One of the local stations was teasing it for the late news and New Mexico is among the states with reported cases of E Coli.
My comment was going to be about a blurb from an FDA person that said the bad spinach hadn't been tied to any specific producer, processing plant or lot number. The local station said there are seven cases under investigation in New Mexico, but the young lady from the state health department said that not all of our local patients had reported eating bagged spinach. Also, one of the other stations had an interview with a grocery customer, who said that her family eats bagged spinach several times a week, they had no plans to change this behavior and she wondered about the personal hygiene of those who had gotten sick.
Most of my fun-making was going to be pointed toward the federal official because I know that here in my small town, there's four different brands of bagged spinach. My daughter has always refused lettuce and tomato in her salads, so up until this year, we always made our salads without either of these ingredients, though my wife and I would always have ours on a bed of lettuce. For the most part, my daughter's salads contained garbanzos, black olives, baby carrots, cheese chunks, unsalted sunflower kernels and croutons. It was only this year, we discovered that she has no objection with having baby spinach in her salads, so by and large, my wife and I have quit having lettuce and all of our salads for the whole family, now contains bagged spinach.
Despite what was being reported, I found it doubtful that every brand of spinach was coming from the same processor, so I couldn't see how all bagged spinach could be bad. Sure, we don't buy the "Popeye's" brand because it doesn't look like salad spinach and most often, we buy the "Newman's Own" because whenever possible, we buy the Newman brand of everything. As it says on my t-shirt; "All profits to charity". They've given over $200 million away, thus far and I've always tried to do my part.
Locally, only Walmart has the "Newman's Own Organics" bagged baby spinach, so if I'm in a hurry and at the other store, I usually buy the "Earthbound Farm" or the "Dole", when it's on sale and at a very good price.
Now, tonight, I learn that though they can't say for certain, it is the organic processor owned by Earthbound Farms that appears to be the source of the problem. The latest story from Yahoo! News says they also process the "Dole - Organic" and several other brands. A quick look at the press releases on Earthbound Farms parent company's website shows that they actually do the production for thirty-one labels. Thankfully, the Newman's Own is not among them and though his website says there has been no reported cases tied to their product, they also don't recommend eating their spinach until more information is known, as a precaution.
Out of all the brands, I prefer the Newman's because of the taste and superior quality, plus as I said above, whenever I'm given my druthers, I'll always pay a little extra for the better product and in support of charity. And, though everything may not be known at this time, I'm really glad that there's half a bag of Newman's in the fridge. After all, it can't be beat.
My comment was going to be about a blurb from an FDA person that said the bad spinach hadn't been tied to any specific producer, processing plant or lot number. The local station said there are seven cases under investigation in New Mexico, but the young lady from the state health department said that not all of our local patients had reported eating bagged spinach. Also, one of the other stations had an interview with a grocery customer, who said that her family eats bagged spinach several times a week, they had no plans to change this behavior and she wondered about the personal hygiene of those who had gotten sick.
Most of my fun-making was going to be pointed toward the federal official because I know that here in my small town, there's four different brands of bagged spinach. My daughter has always refused lettuce and tomato in her salads, so up until this year, we always made our salads without either of these ingredients, though my wife and I would always have ours on a bed of lettuce. For the most part, my daughter's salads contained garbanzos, black olives, baby carrots, cheese chunks, unsalted sunflower kernels and croutons. It was only this year, we discovered that she has no objection with having baby spinach in her salads, so by and large, my wife and I have quit having lettuce and all of our salads for the whole family, now contains bagged spinach.
Despite what was being reported, I found it doubtful that every brand of spinach was coming from the same processor, so I couldn't see how all bagged spinach could be bad. Sure, we don't buy the "Popeye's" brand because it doesn't look like salad spinach and most often, we buy the "Newman's Own" because whenever possible, we buy the Newman brand of everything. As it says on my t-shirt; "All profits to charity". They've given over $200 million away, thus far and I've always tried to do my part.
Locally, only Walmart has the "Newman's Own Organics" bagged baby spinach, so if I'm in a hurry and at the other store, I usually buy the "Earthbound Farm" or the "Dole", when it's on sale and at a very good price.
Now, tonight, I learn that though they can't say for certain, it is the organic processor owned by Earthbound Farms that appears to be the source of the problem. The latest story from Yahoo! News says they also process the "Dole - Organic" and several other brands. A quick look at the press releases on Earthbound Farms parent company's website shows that they actually do the production for thirty-one labels. Thankfully, the Newman's Own is not among them and though his website says there has been no reported cases tied to their product, they also don't recommend eating their spinach until more information is known, as a precaution.
Out of all the brands, I prefer the Newman's because of the taste and superior quality, plus as I said above, whenever I'm given my druthers, I'll always pay a little extra for the better product and in support of charity. And, though everything may not be known at this time, I'm really glad that there's half a bag of Newman's in the fridge. After all, it can't be beat.