Has anyone read about this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060916/ap_ ... ed_spinach

Apparently there's been an outbreak of this bacteria...

What I'm asking is, How does this 'outbreak'? I mean, E. Coli is everywhere. It's a bacteria. It's already in our bodies - it helps us break down the vitamins we need, etc.

So where does this particular strain come from? I mean I can understand one batch getting infected... But now they are saying many many brands have this E. Coli strain infecting many different foods/vegetables, mainly spinach.

Why now? What caused this to 'outbreak' into our foods. Years ago - we discovered it and showed up when we undercooked our meat. To combat that, you just have to thoroughly cook them (I liked rare meat too ) But that was meat... Now it's vegetables?!! They say you don't even bother washing them (As most of them already have been washed, tripled washed in some factories)...


Ugh, what can we eat nowadays that isn't tainted?! Hell, you had to go to strictly 'organicly made' foods to avoid all this processing crap and preservatives... now organic stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

THOUGHTS ANYONE? I'd really like to know how did this all come about too...

Thanks

I want to know what happened, too. They don't know whether it was organically grown spinach or conventionally grown spinach which had been infected. The company grows and bags both. But being organic or not isn't the issue, though some will spin it that way.

Should you be so hasty with your conclusions? If you eat by rules that are too general or too broad you might end up with nothing to eat.

Organically grown stuff [i]is[/] all it's cracked up to be, and Earthbound's an excellent company.

Cheers,

David J

Skeneegee - yeah that's alot of info but I want to know how this recent break out occurred... was it perhaps passed through ferterlizer! or something that can contaminate that much spinach?

David - it's funny... what we think is helping us (humans) may actually be killing us. I guess that's why the need to make on organic foods - especially when people started using hormones to make better milk. Many companies, people, and countries started to NOT use this method for the fear of the hormones making us ill or cause us to have some other bad side effects.

I'm not opposed to anything... but say I would prefer Hagen Daaz to some cheap ice cream brand... definitely Hagen Daaz because well it tastes a hell of a lot better and well while I'm not 100% lactose intollerant, I sometimes get sick eating the cheap brands because of all the additives and crap they fill it up with.

organically grown produce versus conventional would not have any different chance of being contaminated with pathogens. There are way too many factors involved. Don't get me started.

-d

UPDATE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_ ... ed_spinach

Still looks like they're clueless. And still first to point a finger... Outbreak still happens even after warnings of it...

Sheesh....

UPDATE #2

Though state and federal officials have traced the outbreak to a California company's fresh spinach, they still don't know how bacteria contaminated the leafy greens.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060919/ap_ ... ed_spinach

Man, that's good to know jeeez, what's safe to eat these days?

Maybe canned food that you can store 4 years and that you've stored 2 years already and there weren't any problems with it anywhere yet?

Funny enough, that might be true... but also hoping that the can hasn't corroded and the food is still safe to eat after so many years.

Yeah that's why I recommended 2 of the 4 years.

I worked at a canning company for almost six years in product development. Most cans these days have good enough linings on the inside that they should really never corrode, so as long as there is no damage. The product could really last indefinately at room temperature since the contents are commercially sterile. As soon as the seal is broken though, it won't last long.

-d

Some updates from several sources, LA Times, MSNBC, the FDA:

A lab in New Mexico has positively identified that specific strain of e-coli within a bag of Dole spinach. Dole is one of the companies that Natural Selection Foods LLC packages spinach for.

The codes on the bags of spinach collected from the infected people were all from conventionally grown sources. All of the suspected spinach was from the Central California coastal area. I don't know why officials are dragging their feet and not clearing for sale the spinach grown in other states, but it appears that the FDA is demanding new food safety guidelines before lifting the warning.

The outbreak has been traced to contaminated spinach from one or more of nine farms and Federal officials still haven't cleared the several processing plants even though they have been cleared otherwise. Natural Selection Foods LLC had their facilities checked by an independent lab and those facilities were found to be clean.

Apparently farmers in the Salinas Valley sometimes get their irrigation water contaminated by flood waters, and sometimes plants themselves are affected by flood waters. This has been an ongoing problem, and is a main focus in the search for the cause of the outbreak.

David J