Other companies have mounted costly safety efforts, but no one else tests all greens. coli outbreak, the company has subjected about 120 million pounds of salad greens to new testing methods at a cost of several million dollars. Hunting down pathogens in produce has become a personal crusade at Earthbound Farm. The challenge for the company is to make sure none reaches consumers. The testing has confirmed what Samadpour already suspected: Inevitably, some crops are still contaminated with disease-causing bacteria. Each lot is tested twice - upon arrival from a farm, and again when packaged products roll off processing lines. All its greens are now checked for pathogens, from seed to sale. Under the scientist’s guidance, Earthbound rapidly put in place the most aggressive testing and safety program in the industry. “The question you have to answer is, will the processing eliminate the hazard? The answer for this industry is no. “Another bullet is coming your way,” he warned. Right off the bat, Samadpour told Daniels and Earthbound Farm President Charles Sweat that they were delusional if they thought it wouldn’t happen again. “We thought we were the best, but clearly that wasn’t enough,” said Daniels, who oversees food safety at Earthbound Farm.Įarthbound, the nation’s largest producer of gourmet salad greens, founded and owns Natural Selection Foods, which processed the bagged spinach that caused one of the worst food-poisoning outbreaks in recent years.ĭays after the tragedy unfolded in mid-September, the company hired food safety microbiologist Mansour Samadpour. The correct amount is0.08%.īefore that outbreak, whenever Daniels visited the fertile fields of the Salinas Valley or watched his production lines, he saw a wholesome, nutritious product he was proud to provide. The article also gave the incorrect percentageof lots that tested positive for pathogens. The firm’s plantprocessed and packaged the spinach, but the crop was grown by a farmin San Benito County. Tainted spinach: A headline with an article in Monday’sSection A about Earthbound Farm stated that the company grew thespinach involved in last year’s E.coli outbreak.
Do something, anything, to avoid sending to market bags of baby spinach that killed three people, including a 2-year-old boy, and sickened at least 200 others, many with kidney failure. Drive the trucks straight to a landfill and dump the entire load. Stop workers from picking that lethal crop.
Any day now, the first glossy leaves of a new crop will sprout, and within weeks, tons of fresh salad greens will be harvested, processed and sent to market.ĭaniels wishes he could rewind the clock to Aug. On a hot, bone-dry afternoon - not unlike the one last summer when something went horribly wrong here - Will Daniels stands on the edge of a field, its neat rows of seeded soil stretching toward the horizon.
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