SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, Calif., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has expanded its spinach warning, now telling consumers not to eat any product, including salad greens, containing fresh spinach.
The new warning from the Food and Drug Administration was prompted by a national outbreak of E. coli bacteria from bagged spinach that has killed at least one person among more than 100 reported cases in 19 states.
The precaution, which does not apply to frozen spinach, added to the woes of the nation's fresh spinach industry, centered in California.
Before the expanded warning was issued, a University of California-Davis, economist estimated the crisis would cost the state's industry between $50 million and $100 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The FDA's new warning jolted growers.
"That pretty much eliminates the spinach crop for the time being," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. But, "better safe than sorry," he said.
