More “smoking” bags of DOLE spinach.   Great job to Health Departments across the country for taking the time to test this material for E. coli O157:H7.  Hopefully, it will help link to where in the chain of distribution DOLE’s product became contaminated.  However, make no mistake, wherever the product became contaminated, DOLE and Natural Selections remain legally obligated to take care of its customers that have been sickened or died.  Frankly, the entire bagged lettuce and spinach industry are morally responsible for these injuries and finding the solution to this repeated crisis (See my earlier post on past bagged spinach and lettuce outbreaks).

FROM WISCONSIN AP:

Two bags of spinach collected from E. coli patients in Wisconsin are linked to the national outbreak of the disease, state health officials said. The match of the Dole Food Co.-brand baby spinach was confirmed by DNA testing, the state Department of Health and Family Services said.

Three other bags of the Dole spinach — found in Utah, New Mexico and Pennsylvania — have also been linked to the E. coli strain. Each was processed during the same shift on Aug. 15 at a Natural Selection Foods plant in San Juan Bautista, Calif.

Tracing the tainted greens back to the individual fields is difficult because the product of different growers is mixed before being packaged.