Spinach’s Steep Climb Back

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s all-clear signal regarding the recent fresh spinach scare is a welcome development for many of the nation’s beleaguered vegetable farmers and processors but is no guarantee that consumers will warm to the green, leafy vegetable anytime soon.

Indeed, there is a palpable absence of this once popular vegetable in grocery store produce shelves across the United States. For example, the Associated Press reported that one California congressman trying to stage a new conference to demonstrate the safety of the product threw in the towel after failing to turn up a trace of spinach in local supermarkets.

Many of the nation’s major grocery store chains still have not begun restocking spinach and won’t until they ascertain that consumer demand has returned. Those that have resumed selling the vegetable readily acknowledge that it likely will be a long time before consumers return.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that spinach producers sell nearly $107 million of the product each year.

The San Juan Bautista plant of Natural Selection Foods and Growers Express Plant in Salinas, both located in California, are believed to be the sources of the E. coli outbreak associated with bagged spinach. The outbreak sickened almost 200 people and is believed to have caused the death of at least one person.

The outbreak prompted the FDA to issue a two-week consumer alert on fresh spinach. A number of products also were subsequently recalled.

When Will Restocking Resume?

USA Today reported yesterday that several major food chains have begun restocking spinach, though, in many cases, spinach aficionados may have to hunt for the vegetable.

Kroger plans to have packaged and bulk spinach in most of its 2,500 stores by Saturday. Food Lion, with 1,200 stores, plans to restock by next week.

However, some large chains, such as Wal-Mart, have not yet disclosed a date for restocking. USA Today also reports that Publix, which has 883 stores, would not give a time frame for when it plans to restock its produce.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at October 6, 2006 03:48 PM | TrackBack