A good overview of how it happens and what is being considered to reduce it.
Fresh crops tainted by suspicion
E. coli has exposed flaws in spinach, lettuce production.
By Deb Kollars - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, February 19, 2007
Last year's E. coli outbreaks -- one traced to bagged spinach and two to lettuce -- have left a nation in a salad spinner of confusion.
Americans have come to expect the food they eat won't make them sick.
But unlike most edible items in the grocery store that have been cooked, baked, broiled, fried, or pasteurized to destroy harmful bacteria, fresh produce has no such "kill point," no moment on the assembly line when pathogens meet their doom.
The very attribute that makes produce so attractive in color, taste and nutritional value -- its freshness -- also leaves it vulnerable to contamination.
The outbreaks together sickened 350 people -- and killed three -- nationwide. Their one-two-three punch in the fall and winter led to consumer fear and outrage and an unprecedented push by politicians and health leaders for more regulation of the leafy greens industry.
"It's fundamental. You should be able to believe the food you're eating is safe," said Elisa Odabashian, director of the West Coast office of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.
Other produce, such as tomatoes, also can cause pathogen outbreaks. But spinach and lettuce, with all their wrinkles and crinkles where harmful bacteria such as E. coli can hide, are among the most vulnerable produce around. In the past decade, 20 cases of E. coli outbreaks have been traced to fresh leafy greens -- many linked to California's Salinas Valley.
