What I learned about E Coli last night

Last night, I was over at Jamie's place, half-watching his Steelers lose to Jacksonville but mostly, yakking away. Jamie, at some point, asked if I had heard about the latest outbreak of e coli. I had heard of it, I said, and I even posted on this blog about the outbreak. However, Jamie told me something I did not know about e coli.

Before last night, I had thought that we were safe from e coli so long as we washed our hands before and after preparing foods, especially meats. I knew that vegetables could be contaminated with e coli, but I thought that rinsing them off with water would eliminate the risk of ingesting the bacteria.

Jamie, who is supposed to be taking a food safety course this morning as a requirement for his job as a kitchen manager, told me that rinsing off the vegetables with water doesn't eliminate the risk of e coli, because e coli can actually get into the cellular structure of the plants.

I had never heard this piece of information before, and I was shocked. I wasn't sure whether I should believe him or not, but I certainly wanted to find out the facts. Jamie suggested I look at one of his food safety textbooks, but the section on e coli did not include that piece of information.

Today, however, I received an email alert from CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy) about the latest e coli outbreak, and I read this:
Rinsing contaminated spinach with water or other cleaning solutions won't destroy the E coli, said Acheson, because the organism can get inside the plant.

I also read that the infection as a 7 day incubation period, and two nights ago, I cooked some spinach that my wife bought at Wal-Mart. Aigool, Alex, and I all ate that spinach dish I prepared. I had thoroughly rinsed the leaves with cold water, thinking that we would be safe. I'll have to ask Aigool and Alex, but I don't think that any of us have experienced the symptoms of infection, so I hope that we are safe. There is more spinach that I was going to prepare last night, in some tacos, which would have called for raw spinach, but I decided not to eat. I am not sure that anyone else ate the spinach, but I hope not. Today, I'll have to warn them.
- docrivs