tainted spinach

Isela Reyes


The use of pesticides on plants raise questions over the safety of consuming fruits and vegetables that have been exposed to pesticides. More recently, her in northern California, we have seen a rise in food safety concern ever since the news coverage of local farms with products that have caused some people to end up in the hospital. More notably was the E.coli outbreak in 2006 believed to have originated from the spinach that was locally grown in the Salinas area. The FBI and the Food and Health organization believed the outbreak was caused by the intentional disregard for food safety procedures by the employees at the Salinas produce farm.
A number of tests issued to the Salinas farm concluded that there was no contamination of the E.coli in the processing center of the spinach. However, further testing in the surrounding areas showed that there was contamination in the feces found in the pasture that was adjacent to the spinach farm. The Salinas factory that processes the spinach now tests each batch of spinach before it is processed and shipped out.
The food safety ban was placed in late august to prevent further disease was lifted two months later in October and it is now safe to consume spinach once more.