e-coli outbreak

I had the wife down at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN the whole week and was out of touch with the news. We ate at Michael's on Thursday evening, and both ordered the spinach salad. I was sick Friday morning, and she woke up about 3am Saturday morning and it was coming out all ends at once. Neither of us is feeling really great right now, but I don't think we need to go to the emergency room.

But this outbreak, and the fact that E Coli outbreaks kill about 60+ people every year in the US makes one think twice about eating anything that is fresh and uncooked.

I'm still scared to eat Muskmelon because of the potential for bacteria in its rough outer skin being hard to clean. And if you can't wash E Coli off the spinach, what good does it do to wash the muskmelon???

doc

Seeing a complete list, all of the packers our produce purveyors use were affected. We are concerned that the problem will exceed spinach and move on to other post processed leafy greens.
We've removed it all and are alerting the clients. No choice here, this is a major outbreak. We will simply offer different greens (spring mix sans spinach).

If you suspect you have been infected, don't screw around. get in. It needs to be reported to be tracked.

My brother in law is the chaplain at childrens hospital in Seattle and was during the jack-in-the-box outbreak. Most of the kids who got sick were treated there.
Don't mess with e-coli, it's quite capable of doing extensive kidney damage, and the lawsuits are already arriving:
http://www.komotv.com/stories/45491.htm

The really scary part is that there's nothing inherently dangerous or unique about spinach. It looks like that's simply the leaf that got contaminated.

Unless they can find a vector at a spinach-only processing plant, it could affect ANY salad product.

Death to salad? Sure hope not!

I am still serving spinach, mine comes from a farm that grows it specifically for us, so I am not too worried about it.

i love spinach though, what would popeye do?

our spinach salad is now served with various mixed greens. basicly anything we can get. we had to pitch around 4 cases of spinach yesterday but the upside of it is we got credit on all of it, the downside i had mixed a case of baby spinach with baby arugala for one of my dishes(saves space in my ice bins to mix em) anyway i had to pitch all of that. also kinda a bummer seeing how the baby arugala is $25 a case and is now in the garbage! and the mesculin had to be tossed also.

www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01451.html

we had jansel valley and pride of san jaun, key word had. hope this blows over soon and doesnt do any long term damage to the industry.

Hey Doc,
I have to agbree with Rivit. Don't mess with this. Go get checked and tracked. The information will be usefull. This puppy can hide and hurt you without symtoms ( I think)I'm gonna look.
Don't take any chances. I hope you and your wife fell better soon.
Pan

Really, don't mess around with this. E coli is a bad, BAD bacteria. It can not only deteriorate your kidney function very rapidly, but also affect your lung function. It's scary because some of the people affected by this lastest outbreak became sick over a month ago, and the CDC is just now finding out that the sickness has a pattern and common link. Yesterday the outbreak was verified in 9 states, today, 19.
I've always been a little suspicious of all that prewashed, bagged lettuce and other greens. I'm going back to buying bulk and washing it myself.

I got a call from my sysco rep about the outbreak in the middle of lunch. After I had served salads containing bagged spinach. I am a little freaked out about this. Does anyone have a link to more info on this?

Now I am scared! I read that most normal healthy adults get over it completely in about one week, and only the old and sick and children can get kidney damage. Was that incorrect info I read in the news report?

doc

Doc,
There is no need to panic. I think that your participation in mapping this thing will help get the source faster. Better to be on the safe side, right?
pan

We're both feeling a lot better today (Sunday). I'm going into my clinic in 15 minutes when they open at 12 and she's going to see the gastroenterologist at Mayo tomorrow anyways, so she can tell her about her experiences early Sat. am.

I confirmed with the Rochester restaurant manager by email yesterday that the spinach they served us was from River Ranch, one of the suppliers on the recall list.

I wonder if the fact that I drank more of the cabernet (silver oak) than my wife may have been responsible for me not getting near as sick as she did?

doc

I trashed +20lbs 5/4/2lbs bgs. of clean baby spinach on friday. What makes me more madd is this the tomato market.. "The markets continue to escalate due to very tight supplies. We do not expect any true supply or price relief until mid October or possibly early November. Romas and Grapes remain especially tight. Overall quality is poor to fair so please order only what you need and keep your inventories tight and turning. In the east, Quincy production is expected to begin within the next 2-3 weeks with improved volumes anticipated by the end of October. However, reduced numbers of growers and planted acreage will make the deal this year less of a factor than in the past. In the west, Mature Green production has practically been knocked out by past excessive heat issues; we expect a modest bump in volume (but nothing significant) within the next two weeks out of the northern San Joaquin Valley. In addition, some harvesting crews are bypassing fields to salvage what small amounts of good product there is because it is simply not worth it economically. Vine Ripes are currently in the hands of a few CA growers who can not begin to satisfy overwhelming demand. Baja did sustain some heavy damage due to Hurricane John after excessive heat was already causing issues; John dumped up to 15” of rain is some areas. We expect Baja Romas to begin harvesting around mid October. The overall situation is so poor that shippers have enacted “Act of God” status on contracts." :quoted from another forum:

This is why it's better to buy from local producers. We buy from a producer that has a farm minutes away from the city, all organic, picked with care. The people who pick the lettuces are the same people who deliver it to our back door.

absolutely

Makes me wonder about salad greens.

Yeah, we're back down here in Rochester, and last night they whipped out the Romaine and asked me to make my balsamic vinagrette. It was with great trepidation that I ate that salad last night, but then I figure I still got the e. coli in me for up to 5-8 days according to the nurse's line at cigna, so maybe I'm immune to any further trouble!

We see the gastroenterologist in 45 minutes, and see what she has to say!

doc

The Mayo gastroenterologist says most people don't have to worry much about the e. coli unless there's blood in the stool or vomit.

She also says since we're feeling fine today, we're a-ok, and that it is true that the remnants of the bacteria actually do take 5-8 days to eliminate completely from your system.

Also noted that the Natural Foods in California's Organic spinach was not contaminated and it was from their regular spinach operation located in a different factory.

We're done here, wife doesn't have cancer. YEAH!

doc

The Western Growers Association has only about 25 percent of the workers it needs to pick this year's crops. A lot won't get picked because of the problem. I could go on for a bit about this, especially the tomato market, but I don't want to hijack the thread.

Doc, I must have missed something, but I had no idea you were at the Mayo because there was a chance your wife had cancer. What a relief! Congratulations on the great outcome, and here's wishing you both continued good health (E coli outbreaks aside :o )

Yes, Doc, congratulations on your wife's good news!

I had 4 cases of mesclun delivered on Thursday- used one on a catering job on Friday, 2 on another job Saturday, and couldn't use the last one on Sunday because the quality was bad. Called the supplier today for credit and he said DON'T USE ANY OF IT!! IT HAS SPINACH IN IT!! He said he called everyonek on Friday, but must have missed me. What a moron. I should have know there was spinach in it, but I never gave it a thought.

Peculiar to me that I haven't heard anybody link the e.coli outbreak with some form of terrorism. From what I know about e.coli, it is most often associated with undercooked ground beef. And, it seems to me, that if you want to launch a 'ground war,' food is certainly a prime place to start.
I really hope I am wrong.

I heard today that it was NOT linked to terrorism. Of course that came from the government- depending upon how much you trust them is up to you.

Yes, most often contaminated undercooked beef is the main culprit. Due to the use of animal waste as fertilizer on some crops and the pursuant run-off(probably amongst other factors), any vegetable served raw can also be a source of an outbreak. There was one here about 10 years ago that was traced to unwashed parsley. A particular melon is also a known culprit; can't remember if it's honeydew or cantaloupe.

Personally, I'm glad no one has raised the terrorism question. Not that it shouldn't be looked into, but we do not need yet another way for the government to play on people's fears.

IIRC, it was cantaloupe.

Sprouts have also been implicated in outbreaks in the past.

I am looking to source locally.

I think the only "terrorism" involved is the terrorism of lobbyists and private interests that make human safety secondary to profits. The small restaurant owner is going to pay in lawsuits for what the big producers can get away with because of friends in their legislatures. Same for mad cow. Same for hormones in meat. Same for practically anything with big money behind it.

Due to the use of animal waste as fertilizer on some crops and the pursuant run-off(probably amongst other factors),


human waste too.....I've got a farmer friend that posts signs for her workers telling them to use the indoor bathroom facilities, "no pooping in the fields"