Spinach
(I haven't taken any photos of spinach, but have an apple instead.)
More information has come in about the contaminated spinach, so I wanted to point you to a couple of web pages. First, this article at CNN has a list of all the affected brand names (see below). And this Time Magazine article explains how the way in which spinach and other fruits and vegetables are processed can contribute to contamination.
For those of you who just want to know what the affected brands are, here is the list from the CNN website:
• Bellissima
• Cheney Brothers
• Coastline
• Compliments
• Cross Valley
• D'Arrigo Brothers
• Dole
• Earthbound Farm
• Emeril
• Fresh Point
• Green Harvest
• Jansal Valley
• Mann
• Mills Family Farm
• Natural Selection Foods
• Nature's Basket
• O Organic
• Premium Fresh
• President's Choice
• Pride of San Juan
• Pro-Mark
• Rave Spinach
• Ready Pac
• River Ranch
• Riverside Farms
• Snoboy
• Superior
• Sysco
• Tanimura & Antle
• The Farmer's Market
• Trader Joe's
The affected packages have Best if Used by Dates of August 17 through October 1. If you have any of these brands of spinach or lettuce mixtures that contain spinach, please do not eat them, even cooked. And some companies that are not on the list, such as Newman's Own, are advising their customers not to eat any bagged spinach, including their own, until the threat has passed.
As you can imagine, this is worrisome to me because for the past 5 days I have been eating bagged spinach, some of which came from two of the brands mentioned above. For the next week I will probably do a lot of navel gazing, literally. I'm going to wonder if every stomach growl or gurgle is the onset of E. coli sickness. But, for the first time ever, I'm actually glad that my daughter doesn't like salads--and that because I've been eating so many salads at lunch, I haven't been serving them to the family at night. In fact, I've been hogging all the spinach in the house, so if anyone in my family gets sick, it will be me. And I'm pretty tough. ;-)
Labels: life
posted by SusanV at 7:40 AM
18 Comments:
Hey, I'm sure you will be fine, you've been eating it all week and so far so good, right? I bet it's like eggs, only 1 in a million has salmonella.
You're in the clear!
I was wondering what was up with the spinach. The salad place in my caf has a sign out that says they won't be serving fresh spinach until further notice. Strange.
-Tania
http://theonlytania.blogspot.com
Doesn't this totally suck? It's the last thing us vegans need. I can hear all the stupid comments from the meat eaters now...
haha you're funny- i didn't have a picture of spinach but i do of an apple!
You'll be fine. I'm sure of it.
:)
Teddy
Ohhh, thanks for doing the research. Earthbound Farms is the brand I always buy, but luckily I hadn't bought it recently. I love their greens, especially the baby arugula. It's one of the things I allow myself to splurge on quite often although everyone in my family is shocked that I spend that much on "lettuce". And I'm not even a vegetarian!!
Forgot to say, I certainly hope you'll be ok. I agree, it's probably like salmonella where only one egg out of a million is affected. Fingers crossed!!
The timing of this is perfect because my local grocery has Earthbound clam shells of spinach and baby lettuce on special this week--which started before the announcement, of course. I just hadn't managed to get to the store yet. Sometimes procrastination pays off.
I've heard about this, but I didn't realize TJ's brand was part of the recall...thanks for the additional info. Take care of yourself, and call your doctor if anything seems off, though I'm sure youll be fine.
Brandie
http://kajismom.blogspot.com
This sucks!
Sending positive vibes to the tummies of all of us who have been eating bagged spinach all this time.
So, any tips and tricks for washing gritty bulk spinach really easily? :-)
Chris, if you get stupid comments from meat eaters, give it right back to them. E coli comes from cows, and the source of contamination is usually fertilizer.
I was thinking about you as you had salad posts all week. We had Trader Joes bagged spinach that I tossed. This is a good post.
i hope you're alright! this really scared me when i heard it on the news.
I was just heading over to here to make sure you know about the bagged spinach. I'm so glad that you're not sick as of yet - it worries me that even organic brands are affected....
When I first read the article my thoughts were of you as I knew you'd prepared that delicious taco salad that had me salivating...hopefully this will all be over soon and there will be tighter controls so this doesn't happen again.
Hi everyone! Thank you all for your concern. I'm fine! I may be a slight hypochondriac, but even I am not too worried about this. I was fortunate to buy a lot of non-spinach lettuce precisely because I knew I would be blogging about salads, so I ate a lot less spinach than I normally would. And there's really only a remote chance of any one person contracting E coli. I've never been the type to win the lottery, so I don't think I'll be the type to lose this one!
Molly, I always totally hated washing spinach (& other green leafies) until someone taught me to bathe it in a clean sink or lasagne pan. Just fill the sink/pan with an inch or two more water than spinach, changing out the water & rinsing the container until the rinsing water comes out grit-free. Works like a charm for freezing large amounts, too, especially in combination with a salad spinner :-)
I think we'll all be fine if you are carefull. I read that food born bacteria on fuits and veggies only account for about 3% of contaiminated food (the other 97% being meat, dairym and eggs, hmmm...) Oh and I added you as a link if thats okay.
E. Coli Cases Traced to Bagged Spinach
Bacteria Kills One, Sickens Dozens in Eight States
WASHINGTON (Sept. 15) - An outbreak of E. coli in eight states has left at least one person dead and 50 others sick, federal health officials said Thursday in warning consumers nationwide not to eat bagged fresh spinach. The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were made ill, state officials said. The outbreak has sickened others - eight of them seriously - in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, according to federal health officials. In California, state health officials were investigating a possible case that could be linked to the outbreak and warned consumers not to eat the produce.
All this can be avoided!!! There are machines out there that can PREVENT this from happening. They are called Pure Prep and Cuisine Clean. We have to keep our loved ones save and this is the way to go. I clean all my vegetables and fruits this way to avoid such outbreaks. To get one of these items click on this website and order one today....
http://www.vesture.com
I just found your excellent blog, so my comment is late, but still...forms of silver found in a health food store (colloidal is one) can remedy food poisoning. Now I wouldn't deliberately test this (don't eat suspicious food), but try it at the first symptom.
Ba ha ha haaaaa! "(I haven't taken any photos of spinach, but have an apple instead.)"
It's a serious post, but that is freaking hilarious. Clearly, your sense of humor is in perfect health :)
Mikaela
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