Has anyone heard of the spinach scare???

Question

DON'T EAT SPINACH!!!!!!!!!
No one eat spinach casue it carries a bacteria called ecoli!!!!

Answer 1

Sure did, on the news this morning. To anyone who has not heard:
DO NOT EAT ANY BAGGED SPINACH!! THEIR IS AN E-COLI CONTAMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ALL BRANDS ARE EFFECTED. THROW AWAY. It is still uncertain how the spinach became contaminated. Several people from different states have become very ill. E-Coli can be deadly. PLEASE NOTE: WARNING HAS BEEN PLACED AGAINST TRYING TO WASH THE SPINACH, THIS FURTHER SPREADS THE CONTAMINATION.

Answer 2

Yeah! They are erroing on the side of caution. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the spinach is not to blame. It may turn out to be diary or meat issue. I have a bag of spinach at home which I had yesterday (I'm fine), and I think I'm going to stand on a street corner and charge $1/leaf guaranteeing that it's e-coli-free. The grocery stores are pulling all of their spinach off the shelves. Watch - I'm probably going to be on the news soon.

Answer 3

Don't eat the pre-packaged spinach......the unbagged spinach is fine to eat. Happy Friday!

Answer 4

Yes. It is affecting something like eleven states.

I'm not sure that produce should be eaten raw. Any animal can poop on vegetables. Then when the vegetables are washed, the poop can get all over the place.

Since the last scare, I have been buying head lettuce.

Answer 5

not all spinach, but bagged spinach from the supermarket. I think the bunches that are not in bags are ok, but I would rinse them well, anyway. I always put any salad stuff in the spinner, and wash it well anyway.

Answer 6

One person died because of tainted spinach. That was just a big error in cleaning before packing.

Answer 7

Harmful bugs may lurk within leaves.

Healthy salad greens could be contaminated with bacteria that cause food poisoning, despite thorough rinsing. New research shows that harmful bugs can enter lettuce plants through its roots and end up in the edible leaves1.

Although uncommon, food poisoning caused by eating plants can occur. Vegetables that are fertilized with animal manure, which can contain pathogens, pose the biggest threat. Raw salad vegetables are now washed after harvesting to reduce the risk of contamination.

After an outbreak of poisoning by the potentially fatal O157:H7 strain of Escherichia coli that was connected with prewashed letuce2, food microbiologist Karl Matthews and colleagues at Rutgers University in New Jersey investigated whether bacteria were getting inside the lettuce, rather than just sitting on the leaves. The team grew lettuce in manure inoculated with E. coli O157:H7.

After sterilizing the plants’ surface with bleach, the researchers still found bacteria within the internal tissues that are used for water transport. Lettuce leaves could be infected by simply irrigating plants with bacteria-inoculated water, despite the fact that foliage did not come into direct contact with the water. Small gaps in growing roots are a known port of entry for plant pathogens, and may allow E. coli to get in, the researchers suspect.

Water used to irrigate fields could pose an infection risk, warns Matthews. Although the use of composting manure is regulated, "if you’re using surface irrigation there’s still a chance that the edible portion of the plant can be contaminated", he says.

"No one has checked to see whether [bacteria] are on the surface of the plant or within," agrees William Waites, a food microbiologist at the University of Nottingham, UK. His group’s research reveals a similar uptake of E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria bacteria by spinach. Bacteria also accumulate in the plants over time, the group found. "Levels increased up to 30 days, around the time the plants would be harvested," says Waites.

The concentrations of bacteria used in the lab experiments are probably far higher than those that occur on farms, Matthews points out - after all, poisoning by salad is not common. The team is now working to establish whether salad vegetables grown on farms are also contaminated by E. coli O157:H7 or by other bugs.

"If it is found in saleable plants, it presents us with a new vehicle for E. coli O157:H7," says Tom Cheasty, who directs E. coli O157:H7 surveillance at the UK Public Health Laboratory Service in London. But he adds that, for the moment, there is no compelling reason to treat salad with suspicion.

Answer 8

I think this applies to bagged, pre-packaged spinach. Why would you want to buy bagged veggies when you can get them fresh, anyway?

Answer 9

Yeah! Check out http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/15/tainted.spinach.ap/index.html for a good story about the outbreak. Be careful and wash your hands.

Answer 10

If they haven't heard by now they don't listen to the news, don't read, or pay attention to current events. UPDATED: 2:44 p.m. Deadly E. coli outbreak spreads to 10th state http://www.cnn.com/