Packets of salad greens are at the centre of a national supermarket recall over E. coli contamination concerns.
The recall involves packaged spinach and salad leaves sold at Coles, Woolworths, IGA and ALDI, in all states except Western Australia.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) said shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) was detected in two pre-packaged, ready-to-eat spinach products purchased from separate Queensland supermarkets during routine public health surveillance.
It said the source of the contamination was still being investigated but a range of salad leaf products containing spinach had been identified as at risk.
Nearly 50 products have been recalled, with use-by dates up to and including April 9.
“No illnesses have been linked to the recalled products,” FSANZ said in a statement.
“The recalls are a proactive measure to protect Australian consumers.”
‘Nasty’ infections
Gastroenterologist Vincent Ho said STEC was a bacteria that lived in the intestines of healthy people or animals.
He said if ingested, it could cause “gastro” symptoms.
“The classic kind of symptoms that it produces are abdominal clamping, diarrhoea, sometimes blood in the bowel motions, fever and vomiting,” Dr Ho said.
Dr Ho said the infection would be mild for most people but it could be serious and even fatal for some.
“Young children, particularly those less than five years of age, the elderly, those that have weakened immune systems, often they can get quite nasty infections,” he said.
“There have been cases where people have unfortunately passed away from complications of very nasty STEC infections.”
Contamination source
Dr Ho said contamination of salads could happen at any time from the farm to the table.
“It can start as early as during the growing phase where the leafy greens get exposed to bacteria from contaminated water or soil or manure,” Dr Ho said.
“During harvesting and processing, there can be cross contamination, particularly if the equipment isn’t disinfected.
“Packaging can contribute to contamination … if there is contact in packaging with contaminated surfaces or hands.”
He said the moist environment in the bags could also lead to the growth of the bacteria after it had been packed.
Despite the risks, Dr Ho said bagged salads and ready to eat leafy products were generally very safe.
“There’s been tests done on many thousands of bagged salads, and in as a general rule, there’s very low levels of microbiological contamination,” he said.
No shortage concerns
Coles Supermarkets said it was working with growers and suppliers to restock salad leaves as soon as possible.
“We know spinach is a popular salad choice, and there is no reason for concern around shortages,” a spokesperson said.
Fruit and vegetable industry group AUSVEG said it was helping authorities as they investigated the contamination.
“Consumer safety is the top priority for the Australian vegetable industry,”
a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the contamination and recall had a significant impact on spinach growers and the organisation wanted a thorough but timely investigation.
Full details about which products have been recalled are available on the FSANZ website.
Also read: Shocking recall hits Woolworths—did you purchase these recently?
Why isn’t there any recall in WA? when did this start to happen?
We had major gastro real bad but couldn’t confirm the source, so put it down to bad food somewhere somehow, with blaming everything and everyone.
We had bought 1 package each of baby rocket and baby spinach on 12 Mar.
Could it the source? I haven’t bought any since I read about this previously.