Over 200 sickened and at least 4 deaths are attributed to eating E. coli contaminated spinach.  Now we are seeing the results as consumers turn away from a product that the Spinach/Lettuce industry could have made safer.

Salad plant will close after spinach scare; 200 out of job
(Associated Press)

A northern Indiana salad-processing plant with about 200 workers is being closed because of what its owner said is a troubled food industry after the nationwide spinach recall stemming from an E. coli outbreak.

Spinach recall tips broker into Chapter 11 (Orlando Sentinel)

A small Brevard County produce broker that is the chief supplier of bagged spinach to the U.S. military has filed for bankruptcy protection, claiming the recent massive recall of the leafy green crippled its business.

Some other interesting facts:

Three-quarters of all domestically grown spinach is harvested in California. Last year’s spinach crop in California was valued at $258.3 million. The spinach recall has cost farmers and processors up to $50 million in lost revenue, the Produce Marketing Association estimates. That figure does not include losses to brokers.