TAINTED SPINACH RECALLED CALIFORNIA FIRM MAY BE SOURCE.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

WASHINGTON -- A California natural foods company was linked Friday to a nationwide E. coli outbreak that has killed one person and sickened nearly 100 others. Supermarkets across the country pulled spinach from shelves, and consumers tossed out the leafy green.

Food and Drug Administration officials said they had received reports of illness in 19 states.

The outbreak was traced to Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, and the company has voluntarily recalled products containing spinach.

FDA officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection Foods but that the link was established by patient accounts of what they had eaten before becoming ill. An investigation is continuing.

``It is possible that the recall and the information will extend beyond Natural Selection Foods and involve other brands and other companies, at other dates,'' said Dr. David Acheson, the chief medical officer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Natural Selection Foods LLC said in a statement that it is cooperating with federal and state health officials to identify the source of the contamination and has stopped shipping all fresh spinach products. They are sold as Rave Spinach, Natural Selection Foods, Dole, Earthbound Farm, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac and Green Harvest, among other brand names.

State health officials received the first reports of illness Aug. 25, and the FDA was informed Wednesday, Acheson said. The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach. Washing won't get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it.

``We're waiting for the all-clear. In the meantime, Popeye the Sailor Man and this family will not be eating bagged spinach,'' said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. The Tennessee university's medical center was treating a 17- year-old Kentucky girl for E. coli infection.

Los Angeles County health officials also urged residents to avoid eating any bagged spinach.

``If people have bagged spinach, I recommend that they throw it out,'' said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, public health director. ``Even though you can kill E. coli by cooking it, the prudent thing to do is to dispose of it.''

There have been no reported cases in Los Angeles County or California.

``I think it's probably a good time to feast your palate on something else until we identify the source of this, and I would assume that would be relatively quickly,'' Fielding said.

Symptoms of E. coli include stomach cramps and diarrhea. Some people might also experience a mild fever, nausea and vomiting.

``With E. coli, it goes away by itself within five to 10 days,'' Fielding said, although children and the elderly are at a higher risk of having kidney and blood problems.

Each year, consumers buy hundreds of millions of pounds of bagged spinach -- triple-washed and packaged in cellophane bags and clamshell boxes.

``We will do whatever is necessary to help protect the health and safety of the public,'' Earthbound Farm spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said in a statement.

The company said consumers can call [phone] for a refund or replacement coupons for tossed-out spinach products.

Wisconsin accounted for 29 illnesses, about one-third of the cases, including the lone death. Also Other states reporting cases were Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wisconsin accounted for 29 illnesses, about one-third of the cases, including the lone death.``We are telling everyone to get rid of fresh bagged spinach right now. Don't assume anything is over,'' Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said.

The bug has sickened at least 94 people across the nation, the CDC said. The agency added that 29 people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure.

FDA officials said they issued the nationwide consumer alert without waiting to identify the still-unknown source of the tainted spinach.

``Early is good,'' said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, adding that the alert may have prevented hundreds more cases.

An industry spokeswoman said public health concerns justified the blanket warning: ``It needed to happen this way,'' said Kathy Means, a spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association. ``Public health has to trump economics at this time.'' More than half the nation's 500-million-pound spinach crop is grown in California's Monterey County, according to the Agriculture Department.

``We're trying to get to the bottom of this and figure out what happened. Everybody is terribly concerned,'' said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Even before the latest outbreak, a joint state and federal effort has been under way in the California county to find and eliminate any possible sources of E. coli contamination.

``We need to strive to do even better so even one life is not lost,'' said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, the FDA's acting commissioner. Robert Brackett, the FDA's top food expert, stressed the importance of stopping the bacterium at its source, since rinsing spinach won't eliminate the risk. ``If you wash it, it is not going to get rid of it,'' said Robert Brackett, director of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition.

E. coli lives in the intestines of cattle and other animals and typically is spread through contamination by fecal material. Brackett said the use of manure as a fertilizer for produce typically consumed raw, such as spinach, is not in keeping with good agricultural practices.

``It is something we don't want to see,'' he told a food policy conference.

``We pulled everything that we have spinach in,'' said Dan Brettelle, manager of a Piggly Wiggly store in Columbia, S.C.

Consumer activist Barb Kowalcyk said fixing the nation's ``fractured network'' of food safety agencies could save lives. In 2001, her 2-year-old son, Kevin, died of E. coli, possibly after eating tainted ground beef.

``How can we improve communication between agencies? That needs to happen,'' the Loveland, Ohio, resident said.

the outbreak

SOURCE: The E. coli outbreak possibly traced to Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif.

ILLNESS: Since the first reports of illness on Aug. 25, FDA officials say cases have spread to 19 states; one person has died and nearly 100 others have become ill.

WARNING: The FDA warns people nationwide not to eat bagged spinach. Washing won't get rid of the tenacious E. coli bug.

BRANDS: Some of the affected brands are Dole, Earthbound Farm, Emeril, Premium Fresh, Ready Pac, Snoboy and Trader Joe's.

-- Associated Press

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the outbreak (see text)