SALINAS, Calif., March 24 (UPI) -- The source of contaminated spinach blamed for three deaths and numerous illnesses last year has been narrowed down to a ranch in California.
The Los Angeles Times, citing a report by state and federal investigators released Friday, said the tainted spinach that prompted an unprecedented nationwide recall last fall came from a cattle ranch east of Salinas in San Benito County.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's San Francisco District matched 26 samples of feces, soil and surface water at the ranch to the genetic strain of E. coli bacteria found in the bags of spinach that had been linked to those who became ill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had estimated that around 4,000 people were sickened by the spinach that killed three people, including a small child, in the outbreak of last August and September.
About 205 illnesses were reported in 26 states.
Investigators said the contamination most likely occurred in the Mission Organics crop before it was harvested and that it could have further spread during the cleaning, bagging and processing at the Natural Selection plant.
