Supermarkets and salad bars throughout the New York metropolitan area stopped selling prepackaged fresh spinach yesterday as New York joined the growing number of states reporting confirmed cases of E.coli infections linked to Popeye’s favorite food.
The New York cases are currently all upstate – in Erie, Schoharie, Schenectady and Chemung counties. Nationwide, 20 states reported E.coli cases linked to tainted spinach – with one person dead and 94 sickened.
The D’Agostino supermarket chain is giving refunds to anyone walking in with spinach in any form, whatever the brand and no matter where in the city it had been purchased.
A&P spokesman Richard DeSanta said all stores operated by the food giant, including Waldbaum’s, Food Emporium and Food Basics, has pulled not only bagged spinach from its shelves nationwide, but all fresh spinach and all prepared products that had fresh spinach in them.
The Cosi lunch chain also has stopped offering fresh baby spinach in its hand-tossed salads, even though it’s not prepackaged.