2 More Deaths From Tainted Spinach?

Two more deaths are being investigated for possible links to tainted spinach.

An Idaho toddler has died in Utah from a kidney disease associated with E. coli infection, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Kyle Algood, 2, of Chubbuck, Idaho, died Wednesday at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City from hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), said Dr. Christine Hahn, an epidemiologist for the Idaho Department of Health. However, the Centers for Disease Control says E. coli O157 had not been detected in the child.

He had been flown to Salt Lake City from Pocatello, Idaho, earlier in the day.

The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Maryland, reports an 86-year-old Hagerstown woman died last week after becoming infected with E. coli. Her family said she had eaten fresh spinach before getting sick.

Officially, the outbreak has killed just one person and sickened at least 157 others in 23 states since last month. No cases in Maryland have been reported to the CDC.

The states in which cases have been reported Arizona (4 cases), California (1), Colorado (1), Connecticut (3), Idaho (4), Illinois (1), Indiana (8), Kentucky (7), Maine (2), Michigan (4), Minnesota (2), Nebraska (8), New Mexico (5), Nevada (1), New York (11), Ohio (20), Oregon (5), Pennsylvania (7), Utah (17), Virginia (1), Washington (3), Wisconsin (41), and Wyoming (1).

Meanwhile California produce growers and processors hope to salvage what's left of the spinach season and stop millions of dollars in losses by drafting new food-safety measures.

Federal officials have required the industry to adopt the measures before they will lift a week-old consumer warning on fresh spinach.

"We as an industry have to declare war on all food-borne illnesses," Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers Association, an industry group representing about 3,000 fruit and vegetable farmers in California and other states, said Thursday. "We have to do everything to assure the American public that our food is safe to consume."

The industry's response to the E. coli outbreak traced to bagged spinach from central California would build on existing efforts to protect produce from contamination rather than entail a complete overhaul, Nassif said.

It was too early to provide details, Nassif said, but the new measures would likely focus on improved water and soil testing and beefed-up sanitation standards for field workers and packaging plants.

Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, estimated that the FDA's Sept. 14 warning for consumers to stop eating fresh, raw spinach could cost farmers and vegetable packaging companies $50 million to $100 million a month.

Because 70 percent of the nation's fresh spinach production, a $200 million per year industry, is concentrated in California, losses to individual producers will be substantial, Kansas State University agricultural economists said in a press release.

"The crop has a short harvest window before it goes to seed," said Prof. John Crespi.

Spinach is a small part of the diet of most American consumers, making it easier to do without or to replace.

"Fresh spinach consumption has grown dramatically in the U.S. over the past 15 years, and U.S. production has more than tripled since 1990," KSU professor Sean Fox said. "I suspect this incident will be a major setback for the sector."

Trade groups hoped to deliver the new food-safety measures to the Food and Drug Administration within a week but were unsure how long it would take to win the agency's approval.

Once the FDA approves the guidelines, consumers are likely to find lower prices as the industry works to stimulate an appetite for spinach, Silbermann said.

"The thing that is more fragile than this product is consumer confidence, the trust that consumers have in our ability as farmers, processors, retailers and restaurant operators," he said. "That's what we've got to focus on."

The E. coli scare also is affecting sales of other types of produce, although Silbermann said figures for those vegetables were not yet available.

"I've spoken to two local grocery stores and they indicate that, at this point, they are not seeing any reduction in sales of other fresh packaged vegetables," Fox said. "In fact, with spinach off the shelf, sales of mixed salads may be higher."