NEW YORK -- Health officials said Sunday that consumers should not eat any fresh spinach, packaged or otherwise, until investigators find the exact source of the E. coli bacterial contamination, NewsChannel 4 reported.

Inspectors are testing the water used to irrigate spinach fields in California for traces of animal manure, which might explain how the bacteria got into the crop, according to NewsChannel 4.

The spinach recall was widened outside of the U.S. Saturday to include Canada and Mexico, NewsChannel 4 said.

At least 102 people in 19 states, including New York and Connecticut, have gotten sick after eating spinach; one person has died as a result of the contamination.

Officials have linked the tainted spinach to Natural Selection Foods and its Earthbound Farm in California. But they stress they haven’t isolated the bacteria to this company's spinach, and, they said, other brands may still be implicated.

On Saturday, shoppers across the country changed their buying habits as spinach was pulled from grocery stores.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat fresh spinach and Natural Selection Foods LLC recalled its packaged spinach throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The move came as a precaution after federal health officials said some of those hospitalized reported eating brands of prepackaged spinach distributed by the company.

The officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by the holding company, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., and known for Earthbound Farm and other brands. As the investigation continues, other brands may be implicated, officials said.

MORE: List Of Recalled Brands

At a Safeway grocery in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, many of bagged produce shelves were empty Saturday. Anna Cairns said she had to settle for bags of iceberg green lettuce and Caesar salad, instead of her normal salad mix, which contained spinach.

"I have a bag of spinach in my refrigerator I need to throw away," said Cairns, 59, of San Francisco.

Marina Zecevic, 49, of West Los Angeles, shopping at a Trader Joe's, said she made the mistake of serving creamed spinach to her kids the day the story broke.

"My sons started accusing me of premeditated murder," she said.

She felt the contamination issue was overblown.

"The minute we get the all clear, the spinach is back on the table," she said.

The spinach, grown in California, could have been contaminated in the field or during processing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 74 percent of the fresh market spinach grown in the U.S. comes from California, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation. There have been previous bacterial contamination outbreaks linked to spinach and lettuce grown in the state.

Wisconsin accounted for nearly a third of the 102 reported illnesses, including the lone death, a 77-year-old woman who died of kidney failure.

Other states reporting cases were California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, according to the CDC.

"We are very, very upset about this. What we do is produce food that we want to be healthy and safe for consumers, so this is a tragedy for us," Natural Selection spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said.

The FDA advised consumers not to eat fresh spinach or fresh spinach-containing products until further notice. Some restaurants and retailers may be taking spinach out of bags before selling it, so consumers shouldn't buy it at all, the FDA said.

Boiling contaminated spinach can kill the bacteria but washing won't eliminate it, the CDC warned.

At a Stop and Shop supermarket in Meriden, Conn., Michelle Bookey said she frequently buys spinach for salads for her dieting husband but plans to cook it from now on.

"It worries me. I don't even want to buy lettuce," said Bookey, 36.

Earthbound Farm, which claims it pioneered the retail market in prewashed, bagged salads in 1986, says its spinach and other products are in 74 percent of U.S. grocery stores.

It also sells spinach to restaurants and other establishments that serve food. The National Restaurant Association said members were pulling spinach from their menus.

The recall earned the praise of Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer of the United Fresh Produce Association.

"The FDA investigation and the voluntary action taken by Natural Selection Foods LLC help narrow concern about any continuing risk, and begins to ensure that product that may be potentially contaminated is removed completely from the food supply," Stenzel said in a statement.

A Seattle law firm said it planned to add Natural Selection Foods on Monday to federal lawsuits previously filed in Wisconsin and Oregon that named other spinach producers.

Source: WNBC

Hi Geoff, I will move this article over to the health folder 8)

UNDATED - Two more deaths were under investigation Friday for possible links to tainted spinach, one in Maryland and one in Idaho.


The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Maryland, reported an 86-year-old Hagerstown woman died last week after becoming infected with E-coli.

Her family says she had eaten fresh spinach before getting sick.

Officials also were investigating the death of a 2-year-old Idaho boy. Kyle Algood died of kidney disease associated with E-coli. He, too, had eaten packaged spinach.

Federal health officials have reported 157 cases of E-coli in 23 states and one death. No cases have been confirmed in Maryland.

Yahoo News

Does anyone know the current situation since this was first reported 6 weeks ago? Is the warning about spinach still valid?