Officials argue over process date of batch believed to be source
of nationwide outbreak
San Juan Bautista – There appears to be confusion about a specific batch of spinach tainted with E. coli that government officials believe may be the source of the nationwide outbreak.
California Department of Health Services officials echoed a federal report Tuesday that two tainted bags of Dole brand baby spinach – one discovered in Utah over the weekend and another in New Mexico last week – were processed during the same shift on Aug. 15 at Natural Selection Foods LLC’s packaging plant in San Juan Bautista.
When asked to comment, however, Earthbound Farm spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said this information was inaccurate. Earthbound is a subsidiary of Natural Selection. Rather, Cabaluna said, the packages in question had been processed on two separate dates, according to the package codes Earthbound has in possession.
When asked to verify whether or not the packages in question were both processed on the 15, CDHS spokeswoman Michelle Mussuto said, “Yes, that is the correct date.”
Pennsylvania health officials have also reported that a bag of Dole baby spinach purchased in the state was tied to the E. coli strain.
Dole, a privately held company based in Westlake Village, has been linked to the E. coli outbreak through its association with Natural Selection, which packages greens for Dole and dozens of other companies. Test results have linked two bacteria-tainted bags of Dole baby spinach to a single batch from Natural Selection’s San Juan Bautista processing plant.
Dole spokesman Marty Ordman said the company was offering the services of its food scientists and “any and all resources to find out what the problem is.”
He pointed out that most of the salad industry shifts its operations to Yuma, Ariz. for the winter, giving California farmers and processors more time to figure out how to prevent future outbreaks.
In a statement released Friday, the FDA said spinach implicated in the outbreak was produced in San Benito, Monterey or Santa Clara counties. It has not been determined if spinach going through Natural Selection’s packing process was already contaminated. Currently FDA officials are investigating nine farms in the three counties.
Natural Selection said sales were down 40 percent last week; spinach accounts for roughly 20 percent of its business. The company offered the first bagged salads in 1986 at a local roadside stand and has grown into a $360 million a year business. Nationwide, bagged salad is a $2.5 billion a year business.
