Consumers Still Worried About E. Coli

In this Oct. 20, 2006, file photo, spinach, bottom, shares space with other produce at a market in Santa Clara, Calif. According to a new national survey, September's national spinach recall has shaken consumer confidence in the safety of leafy green vegetables. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP)

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- September's national spinach recall has shaken consumer confidence in the safety of leafy green vegetables, according to a new national survey.

Consumers are still avoiding greens and questioning safety issues, months after spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria killed three people and sickened nearly 200.

Plummeting spinach sales have also prompted the produce industry to seek federal oversight to assure buyers that fresh produce is safe.

"We need to be in front of this to maintain consumer confidence," said Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, a leading trade group. "Consumers need to eat fresh produce and feel safe in their choices," he said.

A new national survey to be released Monday by Rutgers University suggests that the broad recall could have lasting effects on spinach and other similar vegetables. As a result, consumers felt uncertain and threw away other bagged produce that was not affected by the recall.

William K. Hallman, director of the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers, called the September spinach recall _ and the E. coli contamination at Taco Bells on the East Coast three months later _ a "signal event" in the public's perception of food safety.

"Consumers' expectations were violated by the fact that a product they thought was clean and wholesome turned out to be something they did not expect," he said. "It raises questions about other produce that are grown in the same way."

The survey showed nearly 9 out of 10 consumers said they heard about the recall, but nearly 1 in 3 said they didn't know the recall was over when the survey was taken. About 1 in 5 who were aware of the recall also stopped eating other bagged produce, and 7 percent threw out fresh produce other than spinach during the recall. More than 75 percent of respondents with spinach in their home threw it out.

More than half of the people who ate spinach prior to the recall hadn't returned to eating it when the survey was taken.

Uncertainty generated by the inability to quickly pinpoint the source of the contamination and the broad nature of the recall caused confusion, Hallman said.

"This has caused people to take a step back and think about what they're eating in terms of produce, more generally than just spinach, and where it comes from," he said.

The national telephone survey of 1,200 people was conducted over three weeks in November, more than six weeks after the spinach recall but before the Taco Bell outbreak. The sampling margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.