In our house, spinach is a staple food, especially when it’s fresh, at least once a week. It is a staple in any healthy diet!
Tonight, as my husband rummaged through the freezer for some frozen vegetables, he came across 2 packages of frozen spinach. He anxiously asked how long these items have been in the freezer. Because we sometimes keep foods in the freezer for too long, I assumed he was concerned about its use-by date
As the conversation progressed, I realized that, like many Americans, he was concerned about the recent e-coli outbreaks that have been tied to spinach.
While the risk of e-coli from eating raw spinach is not new, most consumers are only aware of the risk of e-coli from undercooked beef, not from leafy green vegetables or un-pasteurized milk or juice. Cooking will help destroy e-coli in infected foods and in the case of spinach it should be cooked to a temperature higher than 160 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 seconds.
The following tips from the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov can serve as a guide on whether to add spinach to your plate for dinner tonight:
* Eliminate all traces of e-coli by cooking all parts of the spinach to at least 160 degrees.
* Avoid cross contamination between the spinach and other foods by using clean utensils and clean hands for each item prepared.
* Avoid salad blends that may contain spinach.
* Frozen or canned spinach are safe to eat.
* Avoid fresh spinach grown in the three California counties recently implicated in the e-coli outbreak: Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Bonito
