The Canadian Food Inspection Agency placed a total ban on all spinach from the United States Friday, just as federal health officials south of the border proclaimed it's safe to eat the leafy greens again.
Twenty-five U.S. states have had E-coli cases linked to spinach, with at least 166 people falling ill after eating the vegetable. There may have been a death in Maryland, though state officials say they may never know what killed the elderly patient. There was one confirmed death in Wisconsin, and the death of a boy in Idaho is also being investigated. Of those infected in the outbreak, 88 have been hospitalized.
There haven't been any reported cases in Canada though, and the government's hoping to keep it that way.
For more than a week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recommend people not eat fresh raw spinach. Now the restrictions are being narrowed, focusing solely on three California counties, and already inspections are turning up possible problems.
The latest is that spinach grown anywhere else is perfectly safe though the industry will have to work a little harder to convince people of that while letting consumers know the origin of their particular brand.
"The public can be confident that spinach grown in those non-implicated areas can be consumed and industry is working to get spinach from these areas back on the market," said Dr. David Acheson of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
A team of 20 state and federal investigators visited the 10th California field associated with the contaminated spinach Friday, looking for standing water, animal droppings and the sanitation habits of workers. 188 water, soil and produce samples were collected.
"There are some situations of concern, may I say, that would warrant some possible corrections in the near future," said Mark Roh, the FDA's acting regional food and drug director for the Pacific region. He declined to elaborate.
Last week, Natural Selection Foods LLC of San Juan Bautista, Calif., recalled all its spinach and spinach-containing products. The company's spinach is sold under multiple brands and many have cited eating one of them before falling sick.
States reporting cases were Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.