Three recent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses traced to bagged spinach or
lettuce from California have led some scientists and food safety advocates
to suggest that packaging greens might contribute to the spread of lethal
strains of _Escherichia coli_ bacteria.
In particular, the centralized processing of fresh greens can increase the
risk of more widespread contamination, just as tainted beef from one steer
can find its way into hundreds of packages of ground meat, said Dr David W
K Acheson, chief medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration's
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "If you have a single head of
[tainted] lettuce that winds up in someone's home, makes the family sick,
chances are it'll never get on the radar screen," Acheson said. "If you
take the same lettuce, process it; one head may contaminate multiple bags.
Then you've got an outbreak."
