Contaminated U.S. spinach causes food scare in Canada

Dec 12 2006

In the latest food scare to hit North America Canadians are being warned against eating an American brand of fresh spinach.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says the spinach which has been distributed nationally, may contain salmonella bacteria.

The spinach in question is the Queen Victoria brand which is sold in 10 ounce (or 284 gram) packages, bearing UPC 0 33383 65201 6 and the best before date of " DEC 07."

The CFIA says the likelihood of any remaining affected product being sold at the retail outlets is remote, but some consumers may still have the spinach in their refrigerators.

The CFIA says consumers need to check their refrigerators and destroy any of the spinach they might have.

Consumers are warned not to consume the contaminated product.

So far there have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the spinach but the agency cautions that salmonella bacteria can be present in food that does not look or smell spoiled.

This latest incident is just one of a series and the spinach industry in the U.S. is finding it difficult to recover following the recent deaths of three people and 204 people, including one Ottawa woman, who became ill because of eating contaminated spinach from California.

The Queen Victoria brand fresh baby Spinach is apparently not affected by this alert.

Consumption of food contaminated with salmonella bacteria may cause salmonellosis, a foodborne illness, which can be fatal in young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, as it can cause serious and sometimes deadly infections.

In otherwise healthy people, salmonellosis may cause short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis.