quote:<HR>Originally posted by SuburbanDad:
I sauteed some fresh bagged spinach with mushrooms and used it in my omelet this morning after seeing the story. Heat kills e-coli. As the story says, be cautious about eating it raw.

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Heat does not kill e-coli.

Organic spinach has not been implicated in the outbreak. However, just to be on the safe side you should throw away any bagged spinach.

Its a shame as its my favourite vegetable. At least this guy is happy...

quote:<HR>Originally posted by cipher:

Yes it does. Heat kills E.coli. That's why it's recommended to cook hamburger thoroughly and have no pink inside to be safe. Cooking spinach will kill E.coli. Please don't spread inaccurate information.


http://This message has been edited by cipher (edited Sep-19-2006).<HR>

Correct, cipher.

http://www.gnb.ca/0053/foodsafety/ecoli-e.asp[/URL" target="_blank">

Cooking regimes designed to kill deadly Escherichia coli 0157:H7 must be based on the pathogen being in its most heat-resistant state, according to a microbiologist with USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Bacteria previously subjected to lower heating temperatures may be tougher to kill.

E. coli that have been subjected to only a sublethal dose of heat can be more heat-resistant than bacteria that have not been exposed to such heat. This is why it is so important to adequately cook food to kill foodborne pathogenic bacteria.

At the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center's Food Safety Research Unit in Wyndmoor, Pa, Vijay K. Juneja and colleagues heated beef gravy samples contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7 to 114.8·F for 15 to 30 minutes. The heat was not sufficient to kill the bacteria, but enough to stimulate it so that it could adapt to the stressful heating conditions. They then cooked the gravy to a final internal temperature of 140·F.

Pre-heated E. coli survived longer at the higher temperature?a 1.5-fold increase in heat resistance?than E. coli not subjected to sublethal temperatures. And, the increased heat tolerance lasted for at least 48 hours.

This research suggests to food processors that slowly heating foods to the final cooking temperatures normally used may not kill bacteria. Heat-shocking conditions may occur in refrigerated, cook-in-bag foods such as filled pasta, beef stew, roasts and soups. The slow heating rate and low heating temperatures widely used to prepare these foods may expose potential pathogens to heat shocking conditions, thereby making the microbes even more heat- resistant.

Adequate cooking is still the best way to kill pathogenic organisms in food.

A report on the E. coli research appears in the July issue of Agricultural Research magazine, the monthly publication of the Agricultural Research Service. The article can be viewed on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul98/coli0798.htm[/URL" target="_blank">

I'm sorry but heating spinach does not necessarily kill e-coli.

It better to be safe than sorry.

quote:<HR>
According to Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman in Atlanta, fresh spinach should not be consumed raw.

"We think that cooking to 160 degrees for 15 seconds will do what needs to be done to make it safe, but that's 160 degrees all the way through and it's hard to take the temperature of a leaf of spinach. For now, use frozen packaged spinach and cook it as directed."

Microwaving can't guarantee a safe temperature.<HR>

This whole thing is probably blown way out of proportion to what it is. Folks get sick from time to time from food borne pathogens. For most there are no long term effects and death is rare. More likely to die from getting struck by lightning. I wonder if the drama involved doesn't have more ill effects on folks than the pathogen itself. There is a good possibility that the primary cause of infection was failure to follow directions rather than the food itself. If these individuals had cleaned thier vegatibles perhaps there would have been no outbreaks of E coli. Larry

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"If you see a man running up a mountain trail in Montana with a fly pole attached to his back, you are probably lost. LDD

quote:<HR>Originally posted by cipher:
That article refers to inadequate cooking. A temperature of 140F is not adequate. In fact, any temperatures between 40F to 140F are considered a danger zone to keep food at. Those are the temperatures that bacteria thrive. The recommended safe temperature is at least 160F. Throw E.coli into boiling water (which is 212F) and it will NOT survive. Your statement that heat does not kill E.coli is still inaccurate.
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Semantics.

The instructions on the packet say to throw the thing in the microwave for a certain period of time.

Form what I quoted, its clear that microwaving spinach does not kill e-coli.

Heat does not kill e-col.

Adequate heating/cooking does.

Actually there is some evidence that IF the source of the e coli was contaminated irrigation water that the organism can actually grow within the spinich and not just be present on the outside, thus washing may not be enough. Normally washing will be enough prep to get rid of pathogens on produce, but in this particular case that does not appear to be true. Cooking to the proper temperature will definately kill the ecoli. However, a lot of people (including me) like their spinich raw or slightly wilted, not completely cooked. The USDA ARS study cited earlier is actually referring to cooking and then reheating meat products and therefore does not relate to this situation. I am a microbiologist for a unit of the USDA agriculture research service (not the one discussed earlier) and there is currently research in my unit involving the first issue I discussed (pathogens actually becoming incorporated into the produce itself). It is a relatively new concept that pathogens cannot always just be washed off of produce.

By the way: I waited to see if they could identify the exact cause and when they didn't I threw away the spinich in my fridge. I would have eaten it cooked without any fear, but it was a mix with other lettuce so I just threw it away.