Warning: E. coli and packaged salad greens

Prepackaged salads may contain E. coli (snopes.com)

On 14 September 2006, the FDA issued another national alert about e. coli and ready-to-eat produce. Bagged fresh spinach is suspected in the September 2006 outbreak that has so far resulted in one death (in Wisconsin) and sickened a further fifty people (eight of them seriously) in eight states (Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin).

Read the entire item. It’s not just the current spinach outbreak. The first such outbreak was October 2005, and was related to packaged salad greens with lettuce. And the FDA still has no idea how E. coli is getting into packaged salad greens.

From the latest alert:

“Given the severity of this illness and the seriousness of the outbreak, FDA believes that a warning to consumers is needed. We are working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local agencies to determine the cause and scope of the problem,” said Dr. Robert Brackett, Director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

E. coli O157:H7 causes diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Although most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, some people can develop a form of kidney failure called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). HUS is most likely to occur in young children and the elderly. The condition can lead to serious kidney damage and even death. To date, 50 cases of illness have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 8 cases of HUS and one death.

ETA: According to snopes, it’s possible that the toxin is being leached up through ground water contamination, and may actually be inside the leaves. In that case, no amount of washing will ever remove it.