Health chiefs: Don't eat bagged spinach

By Colette on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 07:33 am:

I saw this last night. My dd is not happy, she takes a fresh spinach wrap to school for lunch almost every day. It's her favorite lunch. I just tossed the brand new bag I bought 2 days ago.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 02:21 pm:

Do you think that the fresh unbagged spinach would be okay? Do they get processed in different places? We don't eat THAT much spinach, but now that everyone keeps talking about, I want some.

By Kate on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 02:29 pm:

What about boxed frozen?

By Colette on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 02:35 pm:

boxed frozen is fine. It's the fresh stuff, which we all love at my house, use it instead of lettuce, that you have to worry about.

By Eve on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 03:56 pm:

We just had some too! Eeek-scary. We love the baby spinach on sandwiches too, Colette.

By Colette on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 07:19 pm:

yes, that is a favorite here, w/pesto, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and a little provolone (no, youngest dd does not eat that, she eats spinach w/"pizza cheese", on a whole wheat wrap. I am so bummed, it is my favorite sandwich.

By Trina~moderator on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 07:27 pm:

Another article.

Unseen danger in bagged salads

By Colette on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 08:37 pm:

great - so there goes the steak tips w/salad idea for dinner....

By Trina~moderator on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 11:19 am:

I never buy bagged salads. I did once a few years ago and it tasted terrible. I prefer to buy fresh lettuce heads and veggies separately and wash everything before preparing a salad. After reading these articles, I'm glad I do it this way! There is probably still a risk, but I would think significantly lower than bagged salads.

By Colette on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 11:29 am:

I usually buy the spring mix and then add my other veggies and more lettuce to it.

Unfortunately, they are saying that thorough washing will not get ride of this either. You have to cook it.

So...I think I'll stick with my own veggies from my own garden. I don't use manure to fertilize, I use seaweed so at least I know my stuff is safe.

By Pamt on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 12:01 pm:

I only buy bagged salad because I like all of the "fancy lettuce" and if I bought them all separately I'd end up with 5 whole heads of lettuce that would spoil before we could eat them all. I usually buy a head of romaine and then mix it with the European blend bag which has frisee, radicchio, and escarole in it. I was going to stop by the veggie market today. Guess I won't buy my bag. *sigh*

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 12:36 pm:

So far, from what I hear on the radio, it's OK to buy bagged salads as long as they don't contain spinach - but I agree, Pam, I wouldn't buy any bagged salads of any kind right now either.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 01:15 pm:

From a couple of articles I have read on the net:

The outbreak was traced to Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., and the company has voluntarily recalled products containing spinach.

FDA officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection Foods but that the link was established by patient accounts of what they ate before becoming ill.

"It is possible that the recall and the information will extend beyond Natural Selection Foods and involve other brands and other companies, at other dates," said Dr. David Acheson, the chief medical officer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Natural Selection Foods LLC said in a statement that it was cooperating with federal and state health officials to identify the source of the contamination and had stopped shipping all fresh spinach products. They are sold under a variety of brand names and are widely available in the Seattle area.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 01:17 pm:

And from an article, listing many brands used and stores to which this supplier sells:

In a statement on its website, the company said it was recalling "all of the products which contain spinach in all the brands we pack with 'Best if Used by Dates' of August 17 through October 1st." It said the brands included Dole, Natural Selections foods, Price of San Juan, Emeril, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac, Sysco, Fresh Point, River Ranch, among others.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 05:20 pm:

We don't eat much salad, but when we do it's bagged. I just won't buy those containing spinach anymore.

We don't eat fresh spinach, primarily because I'm the only one that likes it in our house. I buy canned????? (and love it.)

By Tink on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 05:25 pm:

I've also heard that any spinach frozen after August 1st is suspect and shouldn't be eaten. Personally, I'm going to cut out all spinach for the next little while until they've got this whole issue figured out.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 06:24 pm:

Cooked spinach is OK as long as it is thoroughly cooked.

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 06:44 am:

WARNING EXPANDED TO ALL FRESH SPINACH, not just bagged or mixed in bagged salads, says the FDA, per several articles on Google News this morning - apparently loose spinach at the supermarket may have been prepacked in larger bags, and is still "bagged" spinach. Over 100 people have been diagnosed with E. coli, and 1 has died.

Boiling kills the E. coli, so you can cook spinach.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 09:58 am:

So, really no spinach at all, then! Pamt, that's why I liked the bags. We could finish them, without spoiling. The heads of lettuce always go bad, before we finish them up.

By Colette on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 07:21 am:

They are now recalling "spring mix", which is part of what I use to make salads.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/17/tainted.spinach.ap/index.html

By Dawnk777 on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 07:48 am:

We bought some spring mix, in the last week. We threw it out yesterday. Ugh.

Tainted lettuce

By Fraggle on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 09:07 am:

I hope this gets sorted out soon. I buy a bag of spinach or the spring mix every week.

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 02:24 pm:

Hmmmm.....we had a spring mix a few weeks back and all ended up with a virus. We thought it was the flu but we did not have fevers. Now I wonder if the salad made us sick? We used to eat bagged salad weekly. I guess, no more bags for now. I will just need to cut my own.

By Kaye on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 03:05 pm:

I ate some cooked spinach today...worried me a bit, but boy did it taste good. In a few days if I am very sick I told my friends to remind me about the spinach