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No Lifer
WARNING
Throw out any bagged spinach until the word is given the distribution system is clean.
Washing the spinach will not kill the bacteria!!!
9-15-2006 Deadly Bagged Spinach E. coli outbreak hits 20 states
Even if you wash the spinach, you still could be at risk. Sober warnings for salad lovers came from federal health officials Friday as they struggled to pinpoint a multistate E. coli outbreak that killed one person and sickened nearly 100 more.
Bagged spinach ? the triple-washed, cello-packed kind sold by the hundreds of millions of pounds each year ? is the suspected source of the bacterial outbreak, Food and Drug Administration officials said.
The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach.
Washing won't get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it.
Supermarkets across the country pulled spinach from shelves, and consumers tossed out the leafy green.
"We're waiting for the all-clear. In the meantime, Popeye the Sailor Man and this family will not be eating bagged spinach," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University. The Tennessee university's medical center was treating a 17-year-old Kentucky girl for E. coli infection.
By Friday, the outbreak had grown to include at least 20 states: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wisconsin accounted for 29 illnesses, about one-third of the cases, including the lone death.
"We are telling everyone to get rid of fresh bagged spinach right now. Don't assume anything is over," Gov. Jim Doyle said.
The bug has sickened at least 94 people across the nation, the CDC said. The agency added that 29 people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure.
Initial suspicions focused on California's Monterey County. Farmers there grow more than half the nation's 500 million-pound spinach crop, according to the Agriculture Department.
"We're trying to get to the bottom of this and figure out what happened. Everybody is terribly concerned," said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Anyone who has gotten sick after eating raw packaged spinach should contact a doctor, officials said.
Other bagged vegetables, including prepackaged salads, apparently are not affected.
Throw out any bagged spinach until the word is given the distribution system is clean.
Washing the spinach will not kill the bacteria!!!
9-15-2006 Deadly Bagged Spinach E. coli outbreak hits 20 states
Even if you wash the spinach, you still could be at risk. Sober warnings for salad lovers came from federal health officials Friday as they struggled to pinpoint a multistate E. coli outbreak that killed one person and sickened nearly 100 more.
Bagged spinach ? the triple-washed, cello-packed kind sold by the hundreds of millions of pounds each year ? is the suspected source of the bacterial outbreak, Food and Drug Administration officials said.
The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach.
Washing won't get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it.
Supermarkets across the country pulled spinach from shelves, and consumers tossed out the leafy green.
"We're waiting for the all-clear. In the meantime, Popeye the Sailor Man and this family will not be eating bagged spinach," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University. The Tennessee university's medical center was treating a 17-year-old Kentucky girl for E. coli infection.
By Friday, the outbreak had grown to include at least 20 states: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wisconsin accounted for 29 illnesses, about one-third of the cases, including the lone death.
"We are telling everyone to get rid of fresh bagged spinach right now. Don't assume anything is over," Gov. Jim Doyle said.
The bug has sickened at least 94 people across the nation, the CDC said. The agency added that 29 people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure.
Initial suspicions focused on California's Monterey County. Farmers there grow more than half the nation's 500 million-pound spinach crop, according to the Agriculture Department.
"We're trying to get to the bottom of this and figure out what happened. Everybody is terribly concerned," said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Anyone who has gotten sick after eating raw packaged spinach should contact a doctor, officials said.
Other bagged vegetables, including prepackaged salads, apparently are not affected.
