E-Coli in bagged salad again

amynicole21 wrote: My step-sister checked into the hospital last night due to e-coli bacteria she got from eating bagged salad. She's better today, but now there are news reports all over the place about it. Just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/15/taint...h.ap/index.html

luvbug00 replied: yeah it was on the news last night!

mom2my2cuties replied: Sorry your sister got sick - but glad she is feeling better....

That stinks.. I LOVE bagged salads

CantWait replied: I saw this on the news last night also. It only said bagged spiniach here though. Glad she's doing better.

Kaitlin'smom replied: I heard about it also, I to loved bagged salad sooo much easier for me but I guess I will need to do away with it for a while.


hope your sister feels better soon.

Maddie&EthansMom replied: I'm so glad she's better today. Sorry it hit so close to home.

amynicole21 replied:
The article I read said that also... not sure if she ate spinach or salad - or salad with spinach in it Scary anyway.

Please be aware, the article also said that washing the spinach doesn't get rid of the bacteria because it's too tightly attached.

Boo&BugsMom replied: So sorry to hear about your sister. I saw on the news last night that there are 9 states with cases of E-coli due to bagged spinach and salads. I use to buy that stuff all the time, I'm not going to anymore. They said that they think it's from the veggies not being washed properly before being bagged and that it's coming from the animal waste used to fertilize it. Yuck!

A&A'smommy replied: Thank you for letting us know!!!

luvmykids replied: We've had seven hospitalizations here because of it. I hope your sister has a full recovery very quickly.

Our Lil' Family replied: I came very close to buying some this week but remembered the news!

Boo&BugsMom replied:
We've seen similar things here too. 50 something hospitalized and 1 death.

Crystalina replied: I'm sure everyone remembers my neice passing away from this a few weeks ago. It has never been discovered where she got it from. They told us it was virtually impossible to trace it. I know that with checking what everyone ate (in cases as large as this) it is easier to determine the cause. The paper here downplayed everything with what happen to my neice. I just got off the phone with my mother and she said she was told to tell no one (media) because this is a small town and they did not want a pandemic. Either way, she passed away because of it and I find it very interesting that these states have had cases since the time Olivia was sick and there was not a database (for lack of a better word) that the information concerning her could have been entered and all of the cases could be linked. Many people would have been saved from getting ill. I think when ecoli is concerned (especially since one farm can serve several differant stores in several differant states) there should be a central "database" so they can be linked. Because I cannot find the right words I hope I make some sort of sense. This national outbreak came to light last night but the individual states have been dealing with them for weeks. I'm not saying that Olivia ate the spinach but it is very coincidental that this is all happening.

The reason the spinach can not be cleaned is because when the contaminated run off rain water is absorbed through the roots the ecoli is alive IN the spiniach. Washing it will do no good.

Crystalina replied:
I'm sorry your step sister got sick and I'm very glad to hear she is feeling better. How old is she?

holley79 replied: I quit eating bagged salad that last night that was posted. bagged salad was so much easier though.

ETA: I hope your sister is feeling better soon.

amynicole21 replied:
She is 40 years old.

Again, I'm so sorry about your neice

CantWait replied:
That's very scary. I eat the bagged spinach all the time.

CantWait replied:
If this is the reason then it wouldn't matter whether or not it was bagged or not.

MyBabeMaddie replied: Sorry if it was already mentioned and i didn't pick it up - what brand was the salad?

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I am not sure, but I would stay clear of all of them just to be safe.

luvbug00 replied:

well i feel stuiped. I'm sorry. I am taking thease things and they are making me jittery and I didn't read the thred properly! I'm So Sorry!

I hope you sister gets better

amynicole21 replied:
They said that it was no specific brand - that growers supply many different brands so they can't narrow it down. To clarify, they are just offering warnings on bagged spinach, not salad. Still, I think I would avoid all of it right now.

I can't find a clear answer as to why it is JUST fresh bagged spinach, not frozen or fresh, non-bagged spinach. They have made that distinction though.

punkeemunkee'smom replied: I feel so sorry for the people getting sick! I hope your sister recovers quickly!

Ok now this might sound kinda but we gave floppy bagged salad all the time-he loved it because it has all the different types of lettuce and goodies in it-the vet had said e-coli was a possible infection but we did not know he would have picked it up since he was not exposed to other animals

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Hummm...that's a good question. Perhaps the growers are different for bagged versus fresh? Not sure, but sure would like to know.

kimberley replied: sorry to hear that. i hope your sis is better soon.

i know the salad recall was for dole and i quit buying it with the first report. would cooking it kill the bacteria because we actually cook our spinach.

amynicole21 replied:
No, it will not kill the bacteria. They said to just throw it all away. It shouldn't even be on the shelves at the grocery store actually, but the news reports say that it still is at many stores.

Go with frozen if you need it I guess.

kimberley replied: i will go without instead i was curious why there was no spinach at the grocery store this week. now i know why.

Crystalina replied:
I'm not sure if this is a statement or question (because of the smiley). What I'm thinking is that certain farms may only serve for a certain type of spinach (like bagged). There could be a contract or whatever for that particular farm to only grow for that reason.

CantWait replied:
I think it was more of a statement, seemed off, but the explanation you gave pretty much answers my statement so thank you.

mom2my2cuties replied: I think for now, it might be a good idea to avoid fresh spinich in all forms.

I personally think that downright stinks because I REALLY love my spinich salads.

CantWait replied:
Canadian Spinach is fine

Says here not to eat it cooked, Canadian spinach is fine though.

coasterqueen replied: And......this is why we started growing our own produce.

I hope all those who have gotten it get healthy quick.

mom2my2cuties replied:
I wish we had enough land to grow our own veggies...I miss doing that. We did it growing up and never used fertilizer, or anything like that on our stuff. Just water and sunshine.

coasterqueen replied:
It really doesn't take too much land. Although we have some land we are actually only using 2 4x8 raised garden beds. That's not a lot of space . We grew tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers, sweet corn and melons. We hope to add another box or so next year and add some more produce to the list.

Crystalina replied: My MIL has huge turnout in her garden. She always has so much of everthing that she not only cans it all but gives it away all the time. Her garden is about the same size as a parking spot. She doesn't do ground veggies like spinach. She grows everthing up and it's amazing how much she grows.

DH and I always buy a cow and stick his little butt in the freezer because it's so much better for us and after all of this I will go out this spring and start a garden for the rest. We already have the fresh chickens and eggs. All I need is a dairy cow and I'm set. They say that pasturized milk does not have the ecoli though so I'll continue buying the milk. Geesh, you just never know.