Question about spinach...

marrymemylove

OK, we lived in the US when the whole spinach contamination thing happened. We didn't read much about it. We never bought pre-bagged stuff anyway. But I always thought it was actual spinach which was affected... as in?

?https://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=https://maritee.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/spinach.jpg&imgrefurl=https://orggardening.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/growing-spinach-in-australia/&usg=__lQkwCOyv-p-tvaDnXQVth-CqPik=&h=274&w=400&sz=33&hl=en&start=5&sig2=6PXnnLJ2ZwOqV9J-HqvBJA&tbnid=Le-voS_-og0OvM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=124&ei=TM-tSd_PJYLYsAP5iZDXDA&prev=/images?q=australia+spinach&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=G

?So today I was listening to a podcast of an Australian radio program (I usually miss it on the weekend). And it mentioned the US spinach scare and explained "it was pre-packaged salads which were affected, but Americans call this spinach".

?I never knew that! So was it really lettuce which was affected or was it spinach? Or do you guys put spinach??in salads instead of lettuce?

Yes I know I should know. ?

?

Kersbear

It was bagged spinach, not lettuce.  I love spinach salads, but we also make salads with lettuce as well.

Mrs.JDD

People in the US eat raw spinach with salad dressing on it, so you can buy already washed spinach leaves pre-bagged.  It wasn't regular lettuce (iceberg, romaine, or anything like that) that was affected, just raw spinach leaves.  I think that cooked spinach was okay as long as it was cooked to a high enough temperature to kill any of the bacteria, but I don't remember.

Zenya

spinach like bunched spinach and also boxed, pre-cleaned spinach (incl. baby spinach) that you use in salads.  Like a spinach salad.

Lettuce is different (romaine, iceburg).

marrymemylove

Great thanks. See I would never eat raw spinach. I love cooked spinach but I would never buy it bagged. I just assumed it was actually SPINACH spinach, which is good, since it was :-)

I guess the radio woman was not very clear, and also I was confused because I've never even heard of spinach in salad.?

Mrs Manners

The same contamination can happend with bagged salads too. Six of us got verified (by the doc) food poisioning from bagged Fresh Express Spring Mix salad. It typically happens when the soil or tools (ie. the tools they use to core the lettuce in the field) become contaminated with ecoli or some other bacteria. The spinach contamination happend because of washing with contaminated water.