Left holding the bags: My produce firm needed better FDA guidance in the E. coli outbreak

Ted Keany of the Washington Post also works at Keany Produce Company in Landover, Washington. The day after the FDA’s national warning for consumers to not eat fresh bagged spinach, the produce company wondered what to do with the spinach they did have.

The FDA had not recalled all spinach, but they also had not identified any of the brands or packers that were affected. Nor did they specify whether or not the affected produce was in retail or food-service packaging.

What they did know was that the outbreaks were mostly in the west and midwest, and that the bacteria was E. coli.