Canadian Consumers have a Choice for their Health!!!

[Anonymous]

Its so sad that US consumers are not given the same opportunity with Canadian beef, which statistically has a much higher chance of being BSE infected....

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Canadians warned not to eat bagged U.S. fresh spinach, E. coli feared Merita Ilo, Canadian Press
Published: Friday, September 15, 2006 Article tools
(CP) - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people not to eat bagged fresh spinach imported from the United States on Friday following an E. coli outbreak in 20 U.S. states that has killed one person and sickened nearly 100 others.

"Consumers should check the country of origin in the packages . . . Check for packages marked 'Product of U.S.' or 'Produce of US'," Rene Cardinal, national manager for fresh fruits and vegetables at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told The Canadian Press.

The original outbreak in the United States was reported Thursday in eight states. By Friday, the outbreak had grown to include at least 20 states. Wisconsin accounted for 29 illnesses, about one-third of the cases, including the lone death.

The bug has sickened at least 94 people across the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said. The agency added that 29 people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure.

Officials in both countries warned consumers that washing won't get rid of the tenacious bug, though cooking can kill it.

There have been no cases of E. coli reported in Canada so far in connection with tainted spinach, Alain Desroches, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency said.

Canadian food inspection officials assured consumers that the warning only applies to U.S. spinach. Canadian spinach is still safe to eat, officials said.

The FDA announced late Friday they have traced the E. coli outbreak to bagged spinach products distributed by Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif.

The agency said the company has agreed to recall its bagged spinach products, but warned consumers it is possible the recall could extend to involve other brands and companies.

Natural Selection Foods LLC said in a statement that it was co-operating with health officials to identify the source of the contamination. They are sold under the brand names:

-Rave Spinach

-Natural Selection Foods

-Dole

-Earthbound Farm

-Trader Joe's

-Ready Pac and

-Green Harvest.

When ingested, the E. coli bug can cause diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, although some people - including the very young and old - can develop a form of kidney failure that often leads to death.

In a news release issued later Friday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned that "people with compromised immune systems, young children and the elderly" are most at risk for developing serious complications.

It urged people who have experienced symptoms of the illness after consuming spinach to contact their doctors.

E. coli lives in the intestines of cattle and other animals and typically is spread through contamination by fecal material.

Canadian officials said they were informing the Canadian Produce Marketing Association that represents wholesalers, and in turn they will advise the produce distributors to pull all U.S. fresh spinach from store shelves.

 

[Sandhusker]

MRJ, do you still insist that COOL can't have any health benefits?

 

[Mike]

MRJ, do you still insist that COOL can't have any health benefits?

Attempting my best MRJ impersonation:

Boy, Boys, Boys. Only one person had died here. Let's not get worked up over something as trivial as this.

taking another swig of gin..........................................

Do you really think that e-coli got in that spinach by itself? You all know as well as I do this was a conspiracy by the "M COOL" folks to scare our lawmakers into this fallacy called COOL.

 

[Mrs.Greg]

Was in town getting Groceries today,the spinach was being yanked. On our CTV tonight,the warning was to depose of all spinach grown in States. So ya we've been warned and its being handled. I bet that group R-Veg. had a hand in the ban :lol:

 

[S.S.A.P.]

Since Oldtimer and Sandhusker have emphasized areas and implied a similarity to their proposed "beef COOL"

....Its so sad that US consumers are not given the same opportunity ....

...."Consumers should check the country of origin in the packages . . . Check for packages marked 'Product of U.S.' or 'Produce of US'," ....

.....the warning only applies to U.S. spinach. Canadian spinach is still safe to eat,....

,,,,,, and in turn they will advise the produce distributors to pull all U.S. fresh spinach from store shelves.

MRJ, do you still insist that COOL can't have any health benefits?

..... I can assume that they advocate pulling _ALL_ American raised beef from the shelves, as their version of COOL labels US beef by default (just mark the imported product with country of origin.) Exemptions to US (domestic) e-coli outbreaks, BSE positives, FMD, feed recalls etc ... might be branded beef product which require traceback.

 

[cowsense]

Its so sad that US consumers are not given the same opportunity with Canadian beef, which statistically has a much higher chance of being BSE infected....

OT; Perhaps it's time you checked the OIE classifications for BSE; American cattle fall in the same category as Canadian! And after all your industry has imported millions of undoubtably infected (according to you) Canadian feeder and slaughter cattle; tens of thousands of dairy replacements and thousands of PB breeding stock many of which are still in the breeding herd. Top that off with the fact that your SRM removal policies and feed bans are inferior to Canadian policy. Why your country must be a hot bed of potential BSE infection with all that disease danger your country has imported! Oh and I guess the hundreds of direct European imports into the US would have no bearing at all on your BSE status either! [/b]

 

[mwj]

Its so sad that US consumers are not given the same opportunity with Canadian beef, which statistically has a much higher chance of being BSE infected....

OT; Perhaps it's time you checked the OIE classifications for BSE; American cattle fall in the same category as Canadian! And after all your industry has imported millions of undoubtably infected (according to you) Canadian feeder and slaughter cattle; tens of thousands of dairy replacements and thousands of PB breeding stock many of which are still in the breeding herd. Top that off with the fact that your SRM removal policies and feed bans are inferior to Canadian policy. Why your country must be a hot bed of potential BSE infection with all that disease danger your country has imported! Oh and I guess the hundreds of direct European imports into the US would have no bearing at all on your BSE status either! [/b]

Well Cowsense Oldtimer is prob. trying to find a link to show where that spinach is being fed to Canadian cows :shock: We are still feeding ours chicken crap in some places but not any evil spinach :lol:

 

[Bill]

OT; Perhaps it's time you checked the OIE classifications for BSE; American cattle fall in the same category as Canadian! And after all your industry has imported millions of undoubtably infected (according to you) Canadian feeder and slaughter cattle; tens of thousands of dairy replacements and thousands of PB breeding stock many of which are still in the breeding herd. Top that off with the fact that your SRM removal policies and feed bans are inferior to Canadian policy. Why your country must be a hot bed of potential BSE infection with all that disease danger your country has imported! Oh and I guess the hundreds of direct European imports into the US would have no bearing at all on your BSE status either! [/b]

Well Cowsense Oldtimer is prob. trying to find a link to show where that spinach is being fed to Canadian cows :shock: We are still feeding ours chicken crap in some places but not any evil spinach :lol:

Yep just like when some R-Klanners were whimpering about generic US Ivermectin being used on Canadian cattle. According to them it is OK to use it in the US but not in Canada so they wanted the border closed to risky Canadian beef that had been treated with an American product!
:roll: :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Well Cowsense Oldtimer is prob. trying to find a link to show where that spinach is being fed to Canadian cows :shock: We are still feeding ours chicken crap in some places but not any evil spinach :lol:

Yep just like when some R-Klanners were whimpering about generic US Ivermectin being used on Canadian cattle. According to them it is OK to use it in the US but not in Canada so they wanted the border closed to risky Canadian beef that had been treated with an American product!
:roll: :roll:

Bill- BULL CRAP--SHOW ME WHERE R-CALF EVER COMPLAINED ABOUT CANADIAN PRODUCERS USING GENERIC IVERMECTIN.....

I can show you where I even gave Canadian producers phone numbers for Western Ranch and Big R so they could compare prices- and told them how they would deliver right to the border- both on this forum and on Agriville...

You guys are caught up in your little fantasy world about big bad evil boogey man R-CALF- and when something is shown how it works, or how it can work and benefit the consumer all you can do is attack R-CALF...Canadian beef has apparently sank to a new low-- when Canadian producers even think that your product won't sell with legitimate labeling on it and without putting on the USDA inspected label and passing off as US beef.....Sad day for Canadian cattlemen

Consumers should be given as much info as is available for making an informed choice of what they want to eat...And at this time COOL info is available- its just not being given to the consumers...

 

[jdst]

... since it seems unavoidable, I would like the answer to two questions. (One, really if the first answer is 'Yes'.)

1) Is there really only ONE SINGLE company (regardless of how many brand names the cellophane carries) in the U.S. packaging spinach?

2) Why ban "produce of the US" when it is really "produce of one company" and likely one plant at that!

Here's where complete and honest COOL would help both consumer and producer. I for one would like to know the real source of the spinach - down to the farm(s) - and the chain of custody through which it went. Failing that, show me the source of infection.

I'm as nationalistic as the next guy (maybe more so) but I fail to see any health benefit to me when I am told not to buy spinach from such a large and diverse producer as the U.S.

 

[don]

quote: 2) Why ban "produce of the US" when it is really "produce of one company" and likely one plant at that!

the ban was so widespread because fda took that long to trace the processor where the contmination occurred. i would imagine one processor might package for several brand names.

 

[Murgen]

OT says ID will cause to much red tape and be too expensive! Might have saved some lives in this case.

Just think if they were able to track the individual processer in this case, how much waste might have been reduced.

When it comes to produce, OT, would rather have a whole country's product thrown out, over just the offending individual product.

GO COOL!

 

[Sandhusker]

OT says ID will cause to much red tape and be too expensive! Might have saved some lives in this case.

Just think if they were able to track the individual processer in this case, how much waste might have been reduced.

When it comes to produce, OT, would rather have a whole country's product thrown out, over just the offending individual product.

GO COOL!

They did track the individual processor. "Natural Selection Foods LLC said in a statement that it was co-operating with health officials to identify the source of the contamination. They are sold under the brand names:

-Rave Spinach

-Natural Selection Foods

-Dole

-Earthbound Farm

-Trader Joe's

-Ready Pac and

-Green Harvest.

 

[Mrs.Greg]

Not until after 32 brands were yanked off the shelf.

 

[Mike]

Wonder if Popeye and Olive Oyl are worried about this spinach deal?

Could make an interesting cartoon if Popeye ate a can of e-coli infected stuff while in a dilemma with Bluto. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

OT says ID will cause to much red tape and be too expensive! Might have saved some lives in this case.

Just think if they were able to track the individual processer in this case, how much waste might have been reduced.

When it comes to produce, OT, would rather have a whole country's product thrown out, over just the offending individual product.

GO COOL!

The mandatory ID proposed on cattle wouldn't help a bit in this type situation-- the proposed ID system only tracks live animals- when the hide comes off the ID does too....You don't think USDA would put a hardship tracking requirement on their Packer brothers do you? That is one of the big farces of the proposed ID system....

 

[Murgen]

OT, voluntary tracking through Branded Beef tracks it all the way from ranch to plate.

The system is already there!

 

[Mike]

I was reading about a "Tofu" processor that can pinpoint the exact soybean field, where a can/container of Tofu came from. They use GPS along with the yield monitors on the combine and bar codes etc. all the way through the system.

The technology is there. If we start using it, it will improve exponentially over time too.

 

[cowsense]

I find it interesting that the spinach came from a natural or organic producer...........far too many people blame all food problems on conventional production practices when in all likelihood analysis will fail to find any difference between organic and conventional food products! If they do find a difference it is usually so minute that it is just not scientifically significant!

 

[Anonymous]

OT, voluntary tracking through Branded Beef tracks it all the way from ranch to plate.

The system is already there!

You're right- but the Tyson/Cargils of the world don't want to go that way-they want to maintain most of their product as generic beef so they can continue to import and pass off the imports from which ever place in the world is cheapest at the time, as US beef...

Question for you Murgen- Is there a Canadian Beef branded product? Do any in Canada certify its Canadian beef for the consumer? I've been checking with (calling, writing, e-mailing) many of the Branded beef programs over the last couple of months-- checking to see if they verify their beef as a US product-- and have found several that do (most of which are also all grassfed)-- but have found nowhere a company selling a product they advertise or certify as Canadian Beef....