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Like many organic consumers, Earthbound Farms is one of our favorite sources for organic greens. I had just bought a package of their Baby Spinach when the news came out. Here is Earthbound Farms’ press release dated yesterday, September 18.
If you’ve been following the news, you know that Earthbound Farms products were included in the recall.
The FDA Update is dated September 17. The Earthbound Farms press release is September 18. So it could be that their products have been recalled, but that as of September 18 they didn’t find anything. It’s either that or one or the other is not presenting the whole truth.
The FDA has another press release dated 9/18 and EF is still on the list. Are they just being cautious, or is EF not being straight with us? It’s so frustrating to not know who to trust.
I do want to note that the recall was initiated on the 15th (you’ll have to scroll down to see it). So between the 15th and the 18th testing could have been performed on EF and they were able to release that statement yesterday.
Of course I am curious to find out exactly why Earthbound Farms is reporting the opposite of what’s in the media. Is this all about business, again? I’m sure no one will be surprised if EF organic spinach is, indeed, tainted. After all, it’s a commonly known fact that manure is used in organic farms as fertilizer. Not that this stopped me or any of my organic-consuming friends from buying their products. We firmly believe that the benefits of purchasing and consuming organic produce still outweigh the risks. Plus organic farms supposedly have a system whereby temperature is controlled so the manure they use is safe. AFAIK (and correct me if I’m wrong) fresh manure is never used, only composted manure. To quote:
Properly composted manure produces a highly organic material with a non-offensive odour, that is free of both weed seeds and harmful pathogens such as salmonella and E-coli bacteria. Heat during the composting process destroys seeds and most harmful bacteria. Manure volume, reduced by about 60 percent, results in less material to be handled or spread on fields. The high organic quality of the compost holds water well, which improves overall soil moisture content.
[snip]
Like compost, stockpiled manure adds both organic matter and nutrients to the soil.
However, stockpiled manure has significant drawbacks. It has a persistent strong odour when spread, weed seeds can survive for a considerable time, and pathogens can thrive. The weed seeds can germinate after land application, and pathogens and nutrients can leach into surface and groundwater.
Did EF perhaps use stockpiled, not composted, manure?
Off to write Earthbound Farms. Will update this post as soon as I get a response.
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[...] This is not specifically an Asian food post, but I had bought some Earthbound Farms Organic Spinach last week because I was planning to prepare an Asian-style salad using a recipe from Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The recipe calls for watercress, but as the market didn’t have that, I picked up the spinach instead as a substitute. The next day, the news came out about the spinach recall. I have written about it here but decided to link here in case there are some readers keeping tabs on this. As I mentioned in my post at my personal food blog, I’ve contacted Earthbound Farms and will update as soon as I get a response. Tags:e. coli outbreak, e.coli, earthbound farms, spinach recall Add to: [...]
When quick acting nitrogen is needed, as is mostly the case for fast growing crops with short life cycles, such as spinach and lettuce, compost is not effective as its nitrate release is not synchronised with the crop needs and therefore can result in inferior crop quality and too low yields.
Therefore some growers use slurry or “compost tea†which act much faster but can only be used up to 100 days before harvest which is sometimes longer than the entire growing cycle.
Therefore this rule may not always be respected and can then lead to E. coli outbreaks.
There exists alternative sources e.g. natural mineral nitrogen, that are risk free.
The non risk solution is to stop using strange matters in the organic production like animal blood or feathers or so manny other GURUS inventors
The solution is Natural Nitrate coming from the Caliche in South America.
It has been the natural nitrate for more than 100 years or more.
There is not anny other natural – efficient source of Natural Nitrogen existing
I love spinach.
THis sucks!
I would like to know if this is the same company that produces Taylor Fresh Organic Baby Spinach?
@ Destin ,I just called Taylor Farms and they were not a part of the recall the website is http://www.taylorfarms.com