Greens vanish in spinach scare Fresh vegetables get yanked as precaution

Spanikopita? Chicken Florentine? Artichoke dip?

If you're looking for fresh spinach WHO for tonight's WHEN dinner, chances are good you're not going to find it, and you may not be able to get the frozen version, either.

Grocers and restaurants WHERE have yanked fresh spinach from their shelves and their menus because of an ongoing E. coli outbreak WHAT associated with the leafy greens. At least 109 people have been sickened and one died  WHY in the outbreak. Michigan is one of 19 states that have been affected.

Tampering is not suspected, federal health officials said Monday. The FDA has linked a California company's fresh spinach to the outbreak and investigators are working to pinpoint the source of the bacteria. Possible sources include contaminated irrigation water.

But the recall has put people like Peggy Bistolarides of Ann Arbor in a bind. She labored over a spanikopita two weeks ago, freezing the Greek spinach pie in anticipation of a party she's having Thursday.

"I am spending all this time on this one thing, should I throw it away now with this scare about the spinach?'' she asked. "I want to make sure before I throw away something that I spent an hour making.'' (Since she sautéed the spinach already and will bake it before serving, she plans to serve it.)

Dan Courser, CEO for regional grocery chain Busch's, said all the stores have pulled spinach from the shelves even though their producers were not among those affected.

"We even pulled everything that might have come into contact with spinach,'' he said, including spinach-containing products, like spinach-feta sausage.

Fresh Seasons Market on West Liberty Street also pulled its products, including frozen spinach, although the FDA says frozen spinach isn't affected.

"We actually are getting a fair amount of questions,'' said owner Lynda Stahl. She was posting signs in the store with alternate ideas for would-be spinach eaters.

Kroger spokeswoman Monica Gordon said the chain had pulled all of its spinach on Friday as a precautionary measure as well.

Restaurants are doing the same, in many cases with cooked spinach as well. Andy Deloney, a spokesman for the Michigan Restaurant Association, said the organization had been getting calls from members trying to find out what was going on. Many pulled their spinach-containing products as soon as they heard about the advisory.

Hope Mleczko, manager of Seva, said the Ann Arbor restaurant had to stop using its spring mix salads altogether because the mix includes spinach leaves, but she said a different supplier's shipment that arrived Monday is guaranteed safe.

While cooking food to a temperature of 155 degrees is hot enough to kill the E. coli bacteria, it's hard to measure the temperature in something as thin as a spinach leaf, said Washtenaw County health team manager Kristen Schweighoefer. That's why the recommendation is to just throw it away. She recommends using frozen spinach, which has not been implicated in the recall.

It's not clear when fresh spinach might be available again.

"We just didn't want to take any chances on it,'' said Grace Singleton, managing partner at Zingerman's, which pitched its fresh and cooked spinach items. "I think it's going to be a long haul.''