enterostravaganza!
As your medical liason, I feel compelled to tell you that I would probably avoid the bagged spinach.
xxx
E. coli strain traced to `Salad Bowl' region
By Rong-Gong Lin II
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published September 12, 2006
KING CITY, Calif. -- Federal and state officials have launched a wide-ranging evaluation of lettuce farming and processing in the Salinas Valley, hoping to determine why leafy green vegetables grown here over the past decade have been linked to a potentially deadly strain of E. coli.
Lettuce and spinach grown in the valley, dubbed the "Salad Bowl of the World," have been connected to eight of 19 outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7, associated with such produce since 1995.
The eight outbreaks have sickened at least 217 people in eight states, including two who died at a retirement home in Northern California in 2003.
"That organism is so virulent, it is particularly dangerous," said Robert Brackett, who directs the food safety division at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is leading the investigation.
The recent inspections, which started in late August and will continue through the fall, come after nearly a year of heightened pressure from FDA and state officials to reduce the risk of E. coli contamination. The agencies' concern was intensified when at least 34 people in Minnesota were sickened last year after eating packaged Dole salad from the Salinas Valley.
The valley grows the majority of the nation's lettuce, which is a $2 billion-a-year industry.
Produce need only be contaminated with a small quantity of E. coli for a person to fall ill. The O157:H7 strain, which lives in the intestines of healthy cattle and is present in manure, is passed to humans if they ingest the bacteria. Once eaten, it can produce a powerful toxin, leading to bloody diarrhea and, in rare cases, kidney failure.
The Salinas Valley has been implicated because the E. coli has been traced in some cases to sealed bags of greens grown and distributed from there, said Brackett.
xxx
E. coli strain traced to `Salad Bowl' region
By Rong-Gong Lin II
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published September 12, 2006
KING CITY, Calif. -- Federal and state officials have launched a wide-ranging evaluation of lettuce farming and processing in the Salinas Valley, hoping to determine why leafy green vegetables grown here over the past decade have been linked to a potentially deadly strain of E. coli.
Lettuce and spinach grown in the valley, dubbed the "Salad Bowl of the World," have been connected to eight of 19 outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7, associated with such produce since 1995.
The eight outbreaks have sickened at least 217 people in eight states, including two who died at a retirement home in Northern California in 2003.
"That organism is so virulent, it is particularly dangerous," said Robert Brackett, who directs the food safety division at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is leading the investigation.
The recent inspections, which started in late August and will continue through the fall, come after nearly a year of heightened pressure from FDA and state officials to reduce the risk of E. coli contamination. The agencies' concern was intensified when at least 34 people in Minnesota were sickened last year after eating packaged Dole salad from the Salinas Valley.
The valley grows the majority of the nation's lettuce, which is a $2 billion-a-year industry.
Produce need only be contaminated with a small quantity of E. coli for a person to fall ill. The O157:H7 strain, which lives in the intestines of healthy cattle and is present in manure, is passed to humans if they ingest the bacteria. Once eaten, it can produce a powerful toxin, leading to bloody diarrhea and, in rare cases, kidney failure.
The Salinas Valley has been implicated because the E. coli has been traced in some cases to sealed bags of greens grown and distributed from there, said Brackett.