Search for E. Coli Source Broadens

California Farm Inspections Increase As Grocers Pull Spinach From Shelves

State health officials in Ohio are investigating whether a second death is the result of a deadly outbreak of E. coli linked to fresh spinach, as federal regulators expanded their search for the source of the contamination.

The Food and Drug Administration and California state officials yesterday dispatched additional inspectors to farms in the state to examine irrigation, soil, and machinery, said David W. Acheson, the head of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

The contaminated spinach was initially connected to Natural Selection Foods LLC, a producer in San Juan Bautista, Calif., that sells spinach and salads containing spinach under many brands, including Dole and Earthbound Farm. But the FDA is not limiting its probe to Natural Selection.

So far, 114 people in 21 states have become ill, including 18 who have experienced kidney failure. The first death was reported in Wisconsin, which has had 32 Escherichia coli cases, the highest number reported of any state. Seventy-five percent of the victims are women, Acheson said.

Virginia has one confirmed case, but state health department officials declined to provide further details, citing privacy concerns.

Of the 114 cases, FDA officials have detailed information about what 73 of the victims ate -- 66 ate spinach, including about 40 who ate bagged spinach, Acheson said.

"We don't know everything comes from Natural Selections. All the information we have says the implicated brands were grown in California. That could change," Acheson said. "We are still not ruling out the possibility that other spinach from other states may be implicated."

Natural Selection Foods said yesterday in a statement on its Web site that "based on its work" with California and FDA officials, its organic spinach has not been confirmed as the source of the E. coli outbreak.

But FDA officials refused to clear organic spinach and stressed that consumers should avoid all fresh spinach, organic and conventional, bagged and loose.

"We recognize a need to get our arms around this . . . and begin to focus on which spinach was not involved in this outbreak," Acheson said.

The FDA can recommend a recall of produce but cannot mandate one. While the Agriculture Department inspects meat processing facilities daily, the FDA does not inspect and test produce as frequently before it reaches grocery stores.

"Getting on a farm and testing things ahead of time is not a good use of resources," Acheson said.