Popeye’s lament: Bagged spinach and E. Coli

If you’re like your friends at Casa Waveflux, the first thing you did this morning was to pitch the bag and a half of baby spinach you had in the fridge.The FDA warns of a bout of E. Coli and the bagged green stuff is the culprit. Across eight states, the outbreak has killed one person and sickened fifty. Just hearing about the favored medium of Escherichia coli - cattle fecal matter - is enough to put you off your feed for a week. Symptoms resulting from exposure to E. coli include severe and bloody diarrhea and possible kidney failure.

Because so many hands and people come in contact with spinach betwixt the field and the grocer’s, authorities have been unable or unwilling to name a particular brand or lot number as suspected of contamination. What’s not immediately clear is why loose or unbagged spinach hasn’t been included in the FDA warning. I suspect that many people will make the cognitive leap and just exclude all spinach, bagged or loose, from their diets for a long while. I know I will. Kind of a shame, too, as we’ve been told so often of the health benefits of Popeye’s favorite snack.

Public Service Announcement: Thinking of getting around the hazard by giving your spinach an extra bit of scrubbing? Think again, please:

The FDA warned people not to eat bagged spinach and said washing it wouldn’t solve the problem because the bacteria is too tightly attached.

“If you wash it, it is not going to get rid of it,” said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition.