September 22, 2006

Progress Made in Return of Spinach to the Market

With the source of the E. coli contamination in raw spinach narrowed down to a three-county area in California, sales of spinach from other growing regions may begin soon.

On Sept. 21, FDA revised its advisory to consumers, omitting the section that said consumers should not eat fresh raw spinach. FDA is not preventing growers from harvesting or shipping spinach, and it is not using its detention enforcement abilities, even in the three implicated California growing areas.

“Spinach from the rest of United States has not been implicated in the outbreak,” said David Acheson, chief medical officer for FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “The public can be confident that spinach products from these other areas not implicated in the outbreak can be consumed.”

A group of growers and shippers met in California Thursday, Sept. 21, to prepare a technical document that is necessary before sales of spinach can begin. The procedures in the document include an industry restart cleaning, a pre-harvest audit for Good Agricultural Practices, monitoring and verification of irrigation water, confirmation of soil amendments and the potential to use pre-harvest spinach testing.

“Something went terribly wrong in this case and we have to find it and fix it,” said Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of United Fresh Produce Association.

The action plan will likely be presented to FDA Friday, Sept. 22. If FDA accepts it, the introduction of spinach to the marketplace will go smoother. But ultimately, consumer confidence has to be restored before spinach sales begin.

“It is really the marketplace that has to accept us,” said Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA).

PMA, Western Growers Association, United Fresh Produce Association and the Alliance for Food and Farming are working with FDA to alert consumers that spinach is safe to eat. FDA is working on a statement, expected Friday, Sept. 22 or Saturday, Sept. 23, that will restore consumer confidence without confusing the public.

Officials in California have indicated that nine farms are currently being tested. As of Thursday, Sept. 21, only three farms had been sampled, said Hank Giclas, vice president of science and technology for Western Growers Association. It will take about one week from the time the sample is taken to return a conclusive result.

FDA has not made a distinction between organic and traditionally grown spinach, and there is evidence that the contamination was in both categories, Giclas said.


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