FDA searches the source of E. coli

Health officials in the U.S. are hunting the source of a nationwide E. coli outbreak after a bag of spinach was found in the refrigerator of a person who ate some of the leafy greens. The E. coli spinach outbreak has sickened 146 victims in 23 states and is now being the ground for doubting the standard of food inspection in the U.S.

The bag of fresh spinach that tested positive for E. coli was found in New Mexico and links the outbreak to Natural Selection Foods LLC of San Juan Bautista, California.

"It's certainly premature to say only this bag is going to test positive," said Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "There are others in the works."

The FDA has traced the source of bacteria back to a spinach growing region surrounding Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara counties but the consumers are being asked to avoid eating any fresh spinach products.

According to some consumer groups and agriculture experts the unfolding mystery has made visible some weak links in the nation's food safety program. “It's a very serious problem,'' said Jean Halloran, director of the food policy initiative for Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. “Things fall through the cracks, and they can't make a coordinated attack on a problem or share information or allocate resources properly.''

New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank R. Lautenberg urged the FDA to assure the public spinach grown in their state was safe. "As the nation's fourth-largest spinach producer, spinach farming is a multimillion-dollar industry for the Garden State," Menendez said. "That is why we are imploring the FDA to move quickly in identifying the source of the infected spinach."

The fear of falling sick is expected to keep people from consuming the green leaves. Marcia Mogelonsky, a Mintel International research analyst, said: "I'm afraid with this new food fear, people are going to stop eating salad because even if it's in a bag they are going to have to wash it and it becomes inconvenient again."