CSI: The Kitchen

A six-month investigation into the cause of last fall’s E. coli outbreak turned up … well, a lot, but not the cause of last fall’s E. coli outbreak.

The 50-page report detailed a crime-scene-style analysis of the fields, the processing plants, and the codes on bags of baby spinach. Investigators used DNA fingerprinting to match bacteria from the bags with samples taken from various growing sites, and eventually zeroed in on the responsible field.

While the team was able to identify risk factors — “contamination at or near the field included the presence of wild pigs, the proximity of irrigation wells used to grow produce for ready-to-eat packaging, and surface waterways exposed to feces from cattle and wildlife” — they couldn’t identify precisely how the contamination originated.

That doesn’t mean there are no lessons for food growers and processors, regulators, or those of us who eat the stuff.

The most important lesson for consumers is that ready-to-eat can be anything but. Although the FDA concedes that “washing produce would not have prevented the recent E. coli outbreak involving spinach,” washing can reduce risks from some other causes.

The FDA advises washing all produce thoroughly before eating, and we agree. But we also think that regulations, oversight, and inspections need to be beefed up. Current voluntary standards are clearly ineffective; what we need are strict and mandatory standards on farms and at the processing plant to reassure us that eating fresh veggies really is good for us.