Sludge Watch ==> E. coli spinach probe brings federal criminal search

[Maureen Reilly]

San Francisco Chronicle

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CALIFORNIA
E. coli probe brings federal criminal searches
2 produce firms visited in hunt for safety violations
- Stacy Finz, Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, October 5, 2006


(10-05) 04:00 PDT Salinas -- A quest to locate the source of an E. coli 
outbreak that has sickened 191 people and killed one woman escalated 
Wednesday into a criminal investigation as federal agents raided the offices 
of two northern California produce processors for evidence that someone may 
have intentionally disregarded safety policies.

At about 9:30 a.m., agents from the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration 
served search warrants at Natural Selection Foods LLC in San Juan Bautista 
and Growers Express in Salinas. Employees were asked to leave their work 
stations and visitors were barred from entering as investigators, donning 
rubber gloves, searched the facilities.

The FDA has said that the recent E. coli epidemic can be traced to spinach 
packaged by Natural Selection. But until now, the case has been a study for 
scientists -- not law enforcement. William Marler, a Seattle-based attorney 
who specializes in food-borne illness cases and is representing nearly 100 
people in the spinach E. coli outbreak, said he can count on one hand the 
times when the police have gotten involved.

One of those cases was the high-profile Odwalla E. coli contamination in 
1996 that killed a 16-month-old girl and sickened 66 people. The case ended 
with the Half Moon Bay company pleading guilty to federal criminal charges 
of selling adulterated food products and agreeing to pay a $1.5 million 
fine.

Federal authorities stressed Wednesday that there is no evidence that anyone 
tampered or intentionally tainted the spinach. And the FDA says that it is 
once again safe to eat the fresh leafy greens.

Criminal investigators said they have reason to believe that spinach 
producers may have willfully turned their backs on following proper 
procedures. They spent much of Wednesday combing through paperwork and 
records, including quality assurance documents.

"We are investigating allegations that certain spinach growers and 
distributors may not have taken all necessary or appropriate steps to ensure 
that their spinach was safe before they were placed into interstate 
commerce," said U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan of the Northern district of 
California in a written statement. "The investigation has not revealed any 
evidence of a new or continuing threat to public health in connection with 
the matters under investigation."

No one has been arrested, and authorities emphasized that the criminal 
investigation is in the early stages. A spokesman for Natural Foods, which 
also produces Earthbound Farm Organics' line of fresh vegetables, said the 
company was fully cooperating with the federal government, and was the first 
to voluntarily recall its product from the shelves.

"We have been told today that investigators are interested in documents that 
will help them advance the investigation and ultimately learn the source of 
the contamination, which we believe is in the field, not in our processing 
facilities," said Charles Sweat, chief operating officer for Natural 
Selection in a news release. "We will continue to cooperate fully with the 
investigation and are as anxious as anyone to know the source of the 
contamination."

Growers Express officials declined to comment. It is unclear how the 
company, which was not listed on the FDA's recall list during the height of 
the outbreak, is involved. Neither the U.S. attorney, the FBI or the FDA 
would say how the firm has been implicated in the criminal investigation.

Growers Express is one of several firms licensed to sell Green Giant Fresh 
fruits and vegetables, although spinach is not listed as one of its 
products, according to the Growers Express Web site. The company grows crops 
on more than 40,000 acres, the Web site states. Natural Selection packages 
its bagged greens under more than two dozen brand names, including Dole and 
Trader Joe's. The bags of the E. coli-infected spinach have been traced to 
nine farms in Santa Clara, San Benito and Monterey counties. For the last 
two weeks FDA and state health inspectors have taken a number of samples 
from those fields, hoping to pinpoint the source of contamination.

None of the farms has been publicly named. On Tuesday, investigators with 
the state Department of Health Services said they had detected E. coli 
bacteria in cattle manure found in pastures next to two of the farms. The 
bacteria is definitely the dangerous E. coli strain O157:H7, but 
investigators will need to conduct further tests to see if they have the 
same genetic makeup as the E. coli strain that made people sick.

According to Natural Selection, the company buys its spinach from those 
farms, but has no other financial interest in the properties. Sweat says the 
source of the E. coli most certainly came from the fields.

"As we previously reported, the testing of our facilities done by both 
government investigators and independent scientists revealed no E. coli 
contamination," he wrote in his statement. "We have believed from the onset 
that our facilities were not the source of the contamination."

Still, Natural Selection has offered financial assistance to people who were 
infected. Last week the firm started a new program to test for E. coli in 
every batch of spinach that goes through its processing plants -- a measure 
similar to safety procedures used in the beef industry, according to company 
officials.

As of Wednesday morning, 192 people in 26 states and Canada had fallen ill 
in the spinach outbreak. Of those cases, an elderly Wisconsin woman died and 
30 suffered kidney failure.

The E. coli outbreak began in late August, according to the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA on Friday lifted its warning about 
all spinach, including greens grown in Santa Clara County and the Salinas 
Valley.

E-mail the writers at sfinz at sfchronicle.com and mlagos at sfchronicle.com.

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