FDA's spinach probe moves ahead
FDA's spinach probe moves ahead
The government's investigation leaped ahead Sept. 20 as the Food and Drug Administration announced a matching E. coli O157 sample in a victims Dole spinach bag and as the paper trail narrowed the probe into fields in three California counties.
The New Mexico Department of Health said that it found the matching E. coli sample to the outbreak strain in an opened package of conventionally grown "Dole" brand baby spinach, which was packed by Natural Selection Foods. Many other bag sample results have yet to be reported, said FDA.
This news confirms our decision to go out early with our voluntary recall, the company said in a Sept. 20 statement posted on the Earthbound Farms web site. In this situation, protecting the public health even before we had much information was the right thing to do.
The company said that independent tests of its processing plant did not find the matching strain, but government test results were not known.
Now federal disease investigators have confirmed 146 cases in 23 states as part of the nationwide E. coli outbreak.
FDA also announced that the traceback of product records narrowed the investigation to spinach taken from fields in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara counties. Inspectors are taking samples in nine fields this week. All the spinach implicated in outbreak led FDA back to the three California counties. FDAs David Acheson said that government and industry were working together to get spinach back on the shelves for product grown not in the implicated counties.
The produce industry hailed news that FDA was beginning to clear spinach grown in other regions.
We are pleased that FDA has eliminated any concern about spinach grown anywhere but three counties in California, said Tom Stenzel, president of United Fresh Produce Association. It is important, he said, that producers and distributors of safe spinach be given a clear signal by FDA that their products can return to the market.
Dr. Acheson said FDA was working on bringing spinach back from other regions as soon as we can work on a system with industry. But FDA is very concerned with making sure spinach that comes back to the market is safe, he said.
FDA held a conference call Sept. 20 with industry and consumer advocates to evaluate the consumer advisory message, which will play a key role when the government decides to lift the spinach advisory.
FDA still needs to understand what led to the outbreak, what went wrong and how to fix it before products return to the market. It will not be a quick fix, he told reporters in latest press teleconference.
Theres always a possibility that new regulations are needed to assure the safety of the food supply, he added. FDA needs to find out whether the current guidance was adequate and whether it was being followed. For areas implicated in the current outbreak, there will be changes, he said.
The New Mexico Department of Health said that it found the matching E. coli sample to the outbreak strain in an opened package of conventionally grown "Dole" brand baby spinach, which was packed by Natural Selection Foods. Many other bag sample results have yet to be reported, said FDA.
This news confirms our decision to go out early with our voluntary recall, the company said in a Sept. 20 statement posted on the Earthbound Farms web site. In this situation, protecting the public health even before we had much information was the right thing to do.
The company said that independent tests of its processing plant did not find the matching strain, but government test results were not known.
Now federal disease investigators have confirmed 146 cases in 23 states as part of the nationwide E. coli outbreak.
FDA also announced that the traceback of product records narrowed the investigation to spinach taken from fields in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara counties. Inspectors are taking samples in nine fields this week. All the spinach implicated in outbreak led FDA back to the three California counties. FDAs David Acheson said that government and industry were working together to get spinach back on the shelves for product grown not in the implicated counties.
The produce industry hailed news that FDA was beginning to clear spinach grown in other regions.
We are pleased that FDA has eliminated any concern about spinach grown anywhere but three counties in California, said Tom Stenzel, president of United Fresh Produce Association. It is important, he said, that producers and distributors of safe spinach be given a clear signal by FDA that their products can return to the market.
Dr. Acheson said FDA was working on bringing spinach back from other regions as soon as we can work on a system with industry. But FDA is very concerned with making sure spinach that comes back to the market is safe, he said.
FDA held a conference call Sept. 20 with industry and consumer advocates to evaluate the consumer advisory message, which will play a key role when the government decides to lift the spinach advisory.
FDA still needs to understand what led to the outbreak, what went wrong and how to fix it before products return to the market. It will not be a quick fix, he told reporters in latest press teleconference.
Theres always a possibility that new regulations are needed to assure the safety of the food supply, he added. FDA needs to find out whether the current guidance was adequate and whether it was being followed. For areas implicated in the current outbreak, there will be changes, he said.
