posted
We just had a little emergency meeting at the restaurant I work at. We received frantic calls from a half dozen suppliers telling us to stop serving spinach.
It should be noted though that FROZEN spinach is still perfectly fine.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Hmmm. What if it's boxed spinach, and I've alraedy eaten half the box? It's unlikely that the other half is contaminated, isn't it?
It's just that I made double lunches today and brought them in, so I didn't have to carry lunch in on my bike tomorrow, so there's a lovely salad with chicken and fresh tomato and jicama and everything sitting in the fridge at work waiting for me. . .
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Boxed spinach? I've never heard of boxed spinach.
In any case, I'd say that if you've already eaten half the box there's probably not a problem with the half that's left.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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This is. It's a lovely vegetable, somewhat starchy and just a bit sweet (but the sweet is not due to fructose or white sugar, but an indigestible oligo-sugar). Very crisp and crunchy. And high in vitamin C.Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Very tasty vegetable. I used to snack on those all the time as a kid. Haven't had one in years.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Washing fresh food before eating helps prevent a lot of problems. It's not just e coli - my mom got salmonella poisoning a few years ago and spent a few days in the hospital. She thinks she got it from a canteloupe. She didn't wash it before she cut it. Now she does - and I do, too.
Even though the bagged salads say they are washed, it's a good idea to wash them before using, just in case.
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
(I tried to resist. I really did. But you were right about the jet-lag -- and thus I have no willpower. Alas!)
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I knew Hatrack would know. I saw a blurb for the news about spinach but my daughter wanted to watch Lois and Clark, so I didn't watch to see what it was about (I never watch the news anyway), and being lazy, I popped on to Hatrack to see if anything had "spinach" in the title instead of searching news sites.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
(Thursday's a good night for pulling late-nighters, because I only wreck myself for one day afterward, instead of for a whole week.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
If I had bagged spinach in my fridge, I would throw it out because of this news report. Always better safe than sorry.
But also, as an agricultural person, I feel for all the "other" spinach producers who are going to get hurt by this. They haven't yet narrowed it down to which batch/producer caused this e-coli outbreak, so they are basically, to err on the side of safety, having people through out ALL brands of bagged spinach.
While I agree with the philosophy of erring on the side of caution, I can predict a lot of hurting producers who weren't involved in this at all. That is sad.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Of course, I ate a huge spinach salad (from a bag) last night! And the two nights before (once I open the bag, I need to finish it off). Great. I'm hoping that it would have gotten me by now if it was gonna. Serves me right for trying to be healthy for a change.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I can't believe how many people I've talked to who have said that they didn't ordinarily eat spinach, but that on a whim they had just gotten a bag in the last day or two.
Farmgirl, do you think that the producers are the ones who will be hurt by this? I would imagine that the recommendation that people not buy bagged spinach will be fairly short lived, and I expect that people will return to their old eating habits before too long. It seems to me that the people who will take the biggest hit here will be the grocery stores and their suppliers, who will have to throw out tons of stock (although if I were them I'd hold on to it, as I would imagine that the particular brands contaminated will be known shortly enough that non-contaminated stock would still be good).
Do grocery stores and their suppliers carry insurance against this kind of thing?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Ewwww! E. coli! Bad times. I had an incredibly delicious salad last night, but it was made by somebody else. I don't remember there being spinach in it, but I'll ask him and see if he knows.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote: Farmgirl, do you think that the producers are the ones who will be hurt by this?
Well, if it affects growers at all like it affected beef producers when there was just ONE report of a mad-cow infected cow, then yes, it will be the producers that are hurt.
It's all about the markets, ya know. The market affects the pricing of products.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Noemon -- add me to the list. If I buy spinach, I buy the frozen variety. This last week, for the first time, I bought the bagged version Posts: 107 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I, OTOH, decided against buying bagged spinach Tuesday night.
(Ic, I noticed. You know, there are absolutely no good shoe puns that can be made with El Al? At least, not by me last night.)
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Farmgirl: Well, if it affects growers at all like it affected beef producers when there was just ONE report of a mad-cow infected cow, then yes, it will be the producers that are hurt.
It's all about the markets, ya know. The market affects the pricing of products.
A lot of the effect on beef producers came from our exports coming to a screeching halt. Countries, including the U.S., use so-called "risk of contamination" as a thinly veiled excuse to practice protectionist trade practices. As a result, when the SINGLE case of mad-cow was found, other nations immediately banned imports of U.S. beef, conveniently giving a boost to their own home-grown industry. Such is the "free-market" economy.
Posts: 786 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote: Farmgirl, do you think that the producers are the ones who will be hurt by this?
Well, if it affects growers at all like it affected beef producers when there was just ONE report of a mad-cow infected cow, then yes, it will be the producers that are hurt.
It's all about the markets, ya know. The market affects the pricing of products.
Mad cow disease is a different animal, though. Brian's point is a good one, but in addition to that you have the fact that mad cow is an infectious disease that can spread through existing cattle populations. If Farm A's spinach is contaminated by E. coli, there's no real way for it to be spread to Farm B's crop. The two farms' produce could be mixed together by the business they sell it to, of course, but the stuff that's still in the ground? No real chance of the infection spreading.
I haven't seen studies on how quickly consumer confidence bounces back after a contamination scare, but I'd be surprised if it took very long. Anybody have any numbers on how long it's taken in the past? Say with that apple scare years ago? Or the more recent green onion scare?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I just felt quite justified in having nice, healthy german potato salad (I make excellent german potato salad) for lunch instead of a scary, disease-ridden, likely-to-kill-me, spinach salad.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: How long does this e coli take to kick in?
The incubation period can range from 2-8 days.
From the CDC alert:
quote: The E. coli O157:H7 bacterium causes diarrhea that is often bloody and accompanied by abdominal cramps, but fever is absent or mild. The illness typically resolves within a week. However, some persons, especially young children and the elderly, develop hemolytic uremic syndrome or HUS.
Sorry, the site is secure and I cannot post a link. But here is more information.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Here's is the glance I put together that went on the AP wire last night.
Facts and figures about the E. coli bacterium:
E. coli is: _A form of bacteria that commonly lives in the human body. _One strain releases a toxin that can cause severe illness. _The germ is present in uncooked beef, unpasteurized milk and juice, and on raw sprouts and lettuce.
Symptoms include: _Abdominal cramps. _Severe, often bloody, diarrhea. _Kidney failure in the young, elderly or people with weak immune systems.
If you have an E. coli infection: _You don't need to take antibiotics. _It will probably go away in five to 10 days. _Young children and the elderly could be hospitalized to treat kidney failure.
Every year in the U.S.: _Approximately 73,000 people contract E. coli. _Approximately 61 people die from the infection.
Ways to prevent contracting E. coli: _Wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly. _Cook all ground beef and meat. _Drink only pasteurized milk and juice. _Don't swallow water in lakes or public pools.
If you get E. coli, try to avoid infecting others: _Don't prepare food for others. _Bathe alone. _Don't swim in public places. ___ Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
2 - 8 days? Well, crap. I just finished eating my salad. But, I did wash the spinach even though it said pre-washed, and I'll throw out the rest of the box. I bought a big one, too, as I'm atempting to eat healthier.
Hmmmm, maybe I'll check first and see if it's a local company. That would make it less likely to be linked to these other cases.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
It seems like there's a Hepatitis scare here every other summer or so. And it seems to me that people go back to their prior eating habits fairly quickly.
Personally, I have ALWAYS washed all my fruits and veggies, including bananas, melons, etc., and washed the leafy, hard-to-clean ones with a little dish soap as well as running water (dish soap has the same active ingredient as that expensive fancy veggie wash stuff.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
What's funny is that I had Subway for dinner last night, and I put spinach on it. Guess that was my last time for the month.
I'm still pondering over whether to eat my boxed fresh baby spinach or not. I have the weekend off if I get sick...
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Edit: The latest from CDC is that until we know more about the source of this outbreak, it's not recommended even to cook bagged spinach. They're probably just being overly cautious, but that's what they're saying. *Thorough* cooking will kill E. coli. But who buys fresh spinach and then cooks it? Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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