Gilroy
 – Federal and state health officials are targeting nine spinach
growers in the counties of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara as
they hunt for the source of bacteria linked to 156 illnesses and
one death nationwide.
Gilroy – Federal and state health officials are targeting nine spinach growers in the counties of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara as they hunt for the source of bacteria linked to 156 illnesses and one death nationwide.
Investigators had completed their search for E. coli at three farms by Thursday afternoon and test results were expected to start becoming available as early as today, said Dr. David Acheson of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Officials at the FDA and California Department of Health have refused to identify the farms under investigation or provide a numerical breakdown of the farms under review in each county. State health officials reported to a group of agricultural commissioners Wednesday that the E. coli strain came from animals, rather than humans, though officials had not narrowed the potential field of sources any further.
“Either there was a lot of spinach contaminated on the farm that was harvested at the same time, or there was some problem with the processing-packaging that allowed large quantities to be contaminated,” Acheson said during a Thursday press briefing. “Possibly there were further problems during distribution … that it wasn’t adequately refrigerated and allowed E. coli to grow. It’s certainly possible that several things happened at the same time. … One thing that was clear was that there was obviously a very large amount of spinach contaminated that was distributed to at least 23 states.”
Acheson said consumers should continue avoiding raw or fresh spinach but stressed that canned, frozen or cooked spinach from the three counties is safe for consumption.
On Wednesday, an independent investigation found no signs of E. coli at Natural Selection Foods LLC, a vegetable processor in San Juan Bautista linked to a bag of contaminated spinach discovered in New Mexico. Natural Selection works with more than 30 brands throughout the country, including easily recognizable names like Earthbound Farm (a subsidiary of Natural Selection), Sysco, Dole, Trader Joe’s and Ready-Pac.
Health officials have not ruled out processing and distribution as potential sources of contamination along the production chain, though investigators this week began shifting their attention to spinach fields in the Gilroy, Hollister and Monterey areas.
Thomas Obata and his family are one of 13 spinach growers in Santa Clara County. He said the 480 acres of spinach he produced this year were sent to Earthbound Farm and to Patterson Frozen Foods. Another 170 acres would likely go unsold, said Obata, one of the three biggest spinach producers in South County. As of Thursday, he said health investigators had not called or visited his fields.
“The whole industry is put on hold right now. We can’t plant or harvest,” he said. “We’ve been on hold since last Friday morning. I don’t anticipate starting up for quite some time.”
Obata said the lock-down on spinach production would not prove a heavy hit since it represents just one of eight crops the family grows.
Santa Clara County farms produce 1,100 acres of spinach annually with a market value of $3.2 million. California as a whole produces 74 percent of the nation’s fresh spinach crop, with the Salinas Valley accounting for roughly three-quarters of the state’s share. The area has links to two of the companies that have recalled fresh spinach products: Natural Selection Foods and River Ranch Fresh Foods.
The Salinas Valley has been linked to nine of the 19 E. coli outbreaks since 1995, according to the FDA.
On Thursday, as health investigators combed through spinach fields in the three-county area, the industry moved quickly to restore consumer confidence by announcing plans for new food-safety measures.
“Generally, everything will be reviewed,” said Tim Chelling, a spokesman for Western Growers, which represents about 3,000 fruit and vegetable farmers in California and Arizona. “Health and human safety are our primary concerns.”
Growers and processors have focused their work so far on four areas where E. coli could have come into contact with spinach, said Jerry Welcome, executive vice president of the United Fresh Produce Association.
They are the use of manure as fertilizer, worker hygiene, irrigation water and inadequate chlorine in the water used for washing produce. E. coli is often spread by human or animal waste.
“That might imply testing, product sampling, but we don’t know that yet, just that these are areas that have the most potential for risks,” Welcome said.
Jenny Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, said health officials do not consider Furtado Dairy Farm to be a likely source of E. coli contamination. In May, owner Manuel Furtado pleaded no contest to charges that in May 2005 he released harmful wastewater into nearby Alamias Creek. His 650-cow dairy was also suspected as a source for a second spill in the creek this past May, though Furtado has denied responsibility for the discharge.
“There have been a lot of questions about water and cattle and runoff, and all of these things need to be looked at,” Acheson said. “This isn’t acceptable to anybody – to the industry, to the people who get sick. There does need to be intense focus on this growing area to figure out what the problems are and how to take care of them.”
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or [email protected].
Associated Press contributed to this story.
