Thursday, September 21, 2006
FDA traces spinach-E. coli outbreak to California


The FDA advises consumers to not eat fresh spinach or products that contain fresh spinach until further notice.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The tainted spinach leaves that sparked an outbreak of E. coli bacteria originated in three California counties -- Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara -- the FDA said Wednesday.

Investigators narrowed the source Tuesday to the Golden State, and are now focusing on five farms, said Dr. David Acheson of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

"Ultimately, the goal here is to get down to a field, if not to a spinach leaf," he said. "[Investigators] are going to be looking at all aspects of what could have
gone wrong here."

As of Wednesday, 146 people in 23 states had been affected by the 0157:H7 strain of E. coli, he said -- up from 131 people in 21 states on Tuesday. Of those, 76 had been hospitalized, Acheson said, and 23 have hemolytic uremic syndrome, a form of kidney failure. Seventy-one percent of the victims are female, he said, and the majority are between the ages of 20 and 64.

In addition, Acheson said, investigators have obtained a bag of the tainted spinach from the home of an E. coli victim in New Mexico.

Farms being investigated all had contacts with Natural Selection Foods LLC of San Juan Bautista, California, which last week issued a recall of its products containing spinach in brands with "Best if Used By" dates of August 17 through October 1. (Full story)

The sample from New Mexico had a UPC code matching that covered by the Natural Selections recall, Acheson said. It had a "Best if Used By" date of August 30.
Posted By CNN's Washington Bureau: 9/21/2006 10:47:00 AM ET | Permalink
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