STILL ANOTHER BAGGED SPINACH RECALL

All these incidents of bacteria in the U.S. food supply are wearing me out, trying to keep up. You may notice that most of them are in produce - which we tend to eat raw. That is, no cooking "kill step" for bacteria. And yes, today we have another one.

At least it's a change from Listeria. Church Brothers, of Salinas, California is recalling 560 bags of clipped spinach after one bag tested positive for Salmonella bacteria during a random USDA testing. The recalled product was processed on October 6, 2011 and shipped in 2.5 pound bags to Super King Markets in Los Angeles, California. The “best if used by” date is 10/23/11, but it's been for sale for a couple of weeks.

By the way, this is the second bagged spinach recall this year due to Salmonella - check my post for April 7. It was Fresh Express that time.

And wait...That name "Church Brothers" rang a bell with me. Ah yes, they were involved in the bagged lettuce recall(Listeria that time) just a couple of weeks ago. Church Bros. is part owner of True Leaf Farms by the way, which name may be more familiar to you in connection with that lettuce recall (see earlier posts). It seems that True Leaf Farms is their processing arm (I thought it was the other way around). And, in spite of sending food out with two different kinds of bacteria in the last few weeks, they pride themselves on their safety precautions.

Here's a quote from their website:
"Church Brothers and True Leaf Farms pride themselves with having the highest integrity when it comes to Food Safety Standards and we adhere to the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement standards."

Maybe they should double check. Obviously something is wrong.And I would bet we are going to hear more about Church Brothers' plant and their bagged greens.

To your good health,
TSF