Investigators focus more on fields in three counties in greater
Salinas Valley
Investigators focus more on fields in three counties in greater Salinas Valley
n associated press
Washington – Spinach found in the refrigerator of a person sickened by E. coli was contaminated with the bacteria, providing a break Wednesday for investigators seeking the origin of the outbreak.
The bag of Dole baby spinach tested positive for the same strain of E. coli linked to the outbreak, said Dr. David Acheson, of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Dole is one of the brands of spinach recalled Friday by Natural Selection Foods LLC, of San Juan Bautista.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, company spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said an independent investigation found the company’s San Juan facility to be free of contamination. Cabaluna said that while results from the FDA’s inspection of the facility Monday have not been released, it appears, based on preliminary findings from the independent investigation, that the processing facility is “all clean.” That means the contamination probably originated in the field, she said.
“There’s a lot more space in the fields than in the processing facility,” Cabaluna said.
She said the company hasn’t “even thought” about possible financial losses as a result of the outbreak, but did not plan to cut any jobs.
Federal and state investigators are now focusing on three California counties in the greater Salinas Valley – Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara – in their hunt for the source of the contaminated spinach, Acheson said.
The bag was found in New Mexico, which is among 23 states reporting food-poisoning cases. The package of spinach came from the refrigerator of a patient who ate some of the leafy greens before becoming ill, New Mexico department of health officials said.
Other bags of fresh spinach recovered elsewhere in the country also were being tested in the investigation.
“It’s certainly premature to say only this bag is going to test positive. There are others in the works,” Acheson said.
Officials continued to recommend consumers not eat fresh spinach, as the tally of those sickened rose to 146, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person has died.
Meanwhile, government and industry officials were working on how to allow spinach grown elsewhere in the country back on the market, Acheson said.
Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank R. Lautenberg, both of New Jersey, pushed the FDA to assure the public spinach grown in their state is safe.
“As the nation’s fourth-largest spinach producer, spinach farming is a multimillion-dollar industry for the Garden State,” Menendez said. “That is why we are imploring the FDA to move quickly in identifying the source of the infected spinach.”
Investigators began visiting farms in the Salinas Valley Tuesday, seeking signs of past flooding or cases in which contaminated surface areas had come into contact with crops. They also were looking for potential sources of bacteria inside packing plants.
California produces 74 percent of the nation’s fresh spinach crop. The Salinas Valley accounts for roughly three-quarters of the state’s share, and it has been the focus of the investigation. The area has links to two of the companies that have recalled fresh spinach products: Natural Selection Foods and River Ranch Fresh Foods.
Also Wednesday, Arizona and Colorado joined the list of states reporting E. coli cases.
Among those sickened, 71 percent were women. Among those victims who could provide a date, they reported falling sick between Aug. 19 and Sept. 5, according to the CDC.
New Mexico’s public health laboratory isolated E. coli from the bag of opened spinach and then completed “DNA fingerprinting” tests late Tuesday. State and federal officials then matched it to the strain of the bacteria – E. coli O157:H7 – implicated in the outbreak.
Hollister Free Lance Staff Writer Brett Rowland contributed to this report.
