I was *really* upset when I saw the news about the spinach recall - not because a person died, although that is sad, but because undoubtedly EVERYONE will stop eating spinach now, and it is so healthy!! How many millions of people die each year from eating too much chocolate and junk food ... but if one person dies from eating spinach, it's going to affect millions of people who would have eaten it and have been healthy.
What do you think? Were you eating spinach before? Are you likely to stop now?
Hopefully they'll give us the "green light" to eat spinach again soon...
We had fresh spinach in every salad every day. We have not eaten since the e. coli outbreak and very likely will not eat it again.
I wonder how much this has to do with people not washing their spinach before serving? Even though the bags state "pre-washed," I've always had it recommended to me to wash the veggies again.
I'm holding off until they find the source and contain it, but once they do that - it's back on my plate! I just got to start eating the stuff again about a month ago, I'm not ready to give it up again!!!! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
(Although my father will probably use this as a "logical" argument against spinach - but then he never ate it to begin with!)
Washing spinach won't take care of e coli - they said that you would have to boil it to handle this sort of problem. So it's not about washing at all.
They've given the green light again for all spinach other than that region of CA, which apparently is known in general for its issues. So I definitely am going to go back to eating fresh spinach, just from the east coast.
I would never stop eating spinach because of one death. Over 40,000 people die each year in car crashes. That's just in the US. I think unless we all say we're going to stop ever being in a car, that we can agree that spinach is relatively safe <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I think we should all do our part and start eating spinach again! It is SO healthy for you, and it's sad that the only veggie most people eat is a potato - in french fry form. We really need to get the world eating more healthy veggies.
I love, love, love, love, love fresh spinach, but I won't buy it now, not that I can find it in the stores anyhow.
In late 2003, when I was 29 wks pregnant, I got e coli from eating at a salad bar at a restaurant in orlando. It wasn't widespread but 6 people in town did get sick from eating at the same place (a national pizza chain).
I almost lost my daughter during that time and I have never been in so much pain and so sick in my entire life. Since then I don't do salad bars, I don't do pre-washed anything and when there is an outbreak I don't eat the item.
Meg
I'm from CA, I didn't hear about this...I have no tv though. What area of CA did this happen in?
Meg - but the issue was in CA only and this is a known issue with this area of CA - for *all* things they grow. Rather than avoiding all spinach, you should avoid all Salinas County foods, and eat spinach from the east coast which has never, ever had any problems <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Snuggie - this was a 2 week long nationwide ban - it was removed from *all* shelves everywhere in the entire US. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/29/tainted.spinach.ap/index.html
I would, but when I buy fresh food it's not always easy to tell when it's from. The store has items marked as "from the usa" or "from chile" or whatever...not from salinas county, California.
Meg
That's interesting that washing wouldn't have helped; because that's the primary thing the USDA and the CDC says helps prevent e-coli infections from spreading through fruit and vegetables.
The Mayo Clinic's current commentary states: "Wash raw produce thoroughly, using plenty of running water and a scrub brush or a vegetable wash. Children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems should avoid alfalfa sprouts."
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/e-coli/DG00005Of course, they also say not all e-coli strains are created equal and some are heartier than others.
Here we go - this is the CNN article -
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/15/tainted.spinach.ap/index.html"The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat spinach. Washing won't get rid of the bacteria, though thorough cooking can kill it."
I don't think water kills e coli. You can hope that you remove it all, but if any is left, it is still alive. So the only way to know you've killed it is to actually subject it to a lethal situation, i.e. boiling water.
Meg - that's an interesting point - I really would believe that right now spinach is labelled with its specific source, given the issues. But I haven't been in a supermarket recently to see. I will try to get to one in the next few days to check that out!
I have been eating spinach since young & no I'm not bothered about this piece of news , I just continue eating them whenever I got the chance to
I eat a lot of spinach, but I mostly eat cooked spinach, so the news hasn't caused me to change my diet. I do hope they get to the bottom of all this soon though!
Julie
I go to the grocery store once a week, sometimes two or three times. I havent seen spinach, fresh or bagged,in weeks...there was still none today. I could probably get it at the farmer's market but I think that has ended for the year, not sure.
I've been making do with frozen but I miss my fresh spinach salad!!!!
Meg
My husband and I vacationed at Sunriver Resort in Central Oregon. They had a terrible out break of E Coli from the well water. Everyone just boiled their water for food purposes and drank bottled water.
I love spinach cooked and love it in salad. I live in Oregon and people are eating it and are ok. I am like Popeye the Sailor Man...I eats me spinach!
News reported another spinach related death in Idaho today. A child this time.
Last night I was making coleslaw (bag from Fresh Express, normally I don't buy bagged stuff but I hate cutting coleslaw, LOL) and I looked when we got home and lo & behold it was from Salinas, CA.
I threw it out even though it had no spinach in it.
meg
As stated above, thoroughly washing spinach will help to remove the e. coli, although heat is required to kill it. However, to say that you are never going to eat raw spinach again is a bit foolish. Spinach just happened to be the culprit of the latest issue... any raw produce is a potential source of e. coli contamination. I, for one, plan to continue eating my raw fruits and veggies. A person is far more likely to die from a life time of eating processed junk food than from e. coli on the produce :-)
E.Coli is a nasty bug to get. Until this is more contained, I think we are all safe to not eat any spinach for now. I feel for the spinach farms of our country - this will be a tough one to recoop from. Having taking care of kids with the E.Coli illness the news is talking about (called hemolytic uremic syndrome), it really is as difficult to treat as the news is reporting. Some of the sickest folks I've seen, especially kids, have been HUS patients.
So, I post this just to help keep everyone safe. This is one time the news is not exaggerating.
Best,
Just to be clear, the boy who died, died back in September, from the "old outbreak". That was related to that one Salinas County outbreak which is over with.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-05-spinach-outbreak_x.htm?csp=34Again I personally think eating no spinach from anywhere in the world does not make sense, when Salinas County is known for being bad for *all* food it makes. Why would you eat fresh non-spinach from Salinas County, when that is also probably contaminated? Why would you avoid Spinach from Equador, just because it's "green"? When there was the beef scare, I don't imagine people stopped eating "any brown food" because it was brown <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Sure, avoid Salinas County food. I am all for that. But don't stop eating Spinach from other locations! It has NOTHING to do with spinach. It has EVERYTHING to do with Salinas County *fertilizing* practices, on EVERYTHING they make there.
There are a total of 3 deaths now. They added a woman who actually died in August. The newscast last night said there was talk of a second recall on ALL spinach--regardless of source. My local stores have signs up indicating they will no longer carry spinach until all sources are cleared.
I've never tried, but is Spinach hard to grow? Can you put it in a container garden? Or is it one of those items that needs special soil/conditions?
also, a LOT of things are made in Salinas, I grew up close to there so I'm familiar with the area. Now I live in Northern CA so most of our produce is still from there of course. I don't see why thier farming practices would be any different from other mass-production farms because they all use pesticides and other [censored] things. It is best to buy organic if you can afford it I think.
There are lots of other interesting greens we can all explore right now - so maybe this spinach thing will introduce us all to new kinds of green, leafy veggies. That could be the silver lining. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I read today that they think the e coli came from the water source multiple farms are using, and buying organic isn't going to help since it's the same water and same soil.
In fact, most of the lettuce currently being recalled is organic from what I read (not that I trust the news 100%)
All the news I've read said that Salinas County is the cause for all spinach issues right now. It wouldn't make any sense that spinach in Canada - which has been fine for decades - would suddenly be unsafe because of evil practices being done in Salinas County.
I was in the store yesterday and *every* single bag of spinach was clearly labelled with where it came from. There were Washington State, Canada, Nevada and others. So you can very easily buy spinach from a location hundreds of miles from Salinas County and be 100% safe. Well, I mean as safe as buying any food that you do not grow yourself. Again with spinach being so healthy it makes no sense to me to stop eating that but to continue eating other vegetables. And I would certainly never stop eating vegetables!
Spinach is REALLY really easy to grow. When we grew it last year, we didn't take care of it at all, and we had way more than we could possibly eat.