Sludge Watch ==> Tainted Spinach traced to San Benito Farm - spin docs want to blame organic

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin

What happened to the tainted spinach from the Monterey County farm? Where 
did that investigation go?

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http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=467&yr=2007

Tainted Spinach Traced to San Benito County Farm
USAgNet - 03/01/2007

Health officials were cited as telling state lawmakers said at a legislative 
hearing Tuesday that fresh spinach that sparked a nationwide E. coli 
outbreak last fall was grown on a roughly 50-acre plot in San Benito County, 
which was in the second year of a three-year transition to organic 
production.

Dr. Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services declined to 
release further details until they complete a full report on the outbreak, 
but said the report with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, would be 
released, "hopefully within the next few weeks."

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, was cited as saying that federal health 
officials have repeatedly complained that California has failed to find a 
way to prevent outbreaks like the fatal, multistate one last October caused 
by California spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria, adding, "Why are 
we waiting so long?"

Reilly defended the joint state-federal investigation that followed the 
outbreak, saying it traced the spinach back to the likely source in just a 
few weeks, which is record time for such an investigation.

But he acknowledged that investigators still have not discovered exactly how 
the bacteria, found in the intestines of cattle, wild boars and other 
animals in the area, got onto the spinach that sickened people.