Sunday, September 17, 2006

E-coli outbreak blamed on spinach

The US Federal health officials worked Friday to find the source of a multistate E. coli outbreak linked to bagged spinach and warned consumers that even washing the suspect spinach won't kill the sometimes-deadly bacteria.

One person died and dozens of others were sickened in the nine-state outbreak, linked by Food and Drug Administration officials to bagged spinach.

The Food and Drug Administration or FDA warned people not to eat bagged spinach and said washing it wouldn't solve the problem because the bacteria is too tightly attached.

Thorough cooking can kill the tenacious bug.

The outbreak has been traced to Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, California, and the company has voluntarily recalled products containing spinach.

Supermarkets across the USA pulled spinach from shelves and consumers are discarding out the leafy green.

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