SPINACH MAKES SLOW COMEBACK INTO STORES

AMY SUNG

WASHINGTON - Retailers last week were starting to restock fresh and bagged spinach grown in areas outside the central California region that's been implicated in a major outbreak of illness linked to E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria.

By limiting the implicated spinach to certain products from Natural Selection Foods, San Juan Bautista, Calif., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the all-clear to all other fresh spinach products.

Stores in the Northeast were the first to bring spinach back, mostly products coming from Colorado and Canada.

"Beginning Sept. 27, we reintroduced bagged Savoy spinach back onto our shelves. It's produced in Colorado and Canada, so it doesn't come from the three affected counties in California that the FDA is focusing on," said Jamie Miller, spokesman for Giant Food, Landover, Md. "The bags indicate where the spinach is from. In addition, we're putting signage in our produce departments making customers aware of where it's from, as well as information on our website."

Giant continues to sell Savoy spinach at all stores in the chain and will make a decision shortly about reintroducing spinach from other areas, he said.

Officials at Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Super Markets were having trouble sourcing spinach.

"With the whole country trying to replenish shelves and with Canada reaching the end of their spinach season, it's becoming more difficult to acquire the product, but we're working with our suppliers and we do not expect that a shipment will come in this week," Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said. "We are working with our suppliers and doing visits to their facilities to ensure the safety of the product, and while we're working with all of our suppliers to replenish our shelves, Publix [private-label] brand will still debut first."

Retailers acknowledged they may have a tough job ahead, restoring consumer confidence in the leafy green vegetable and bringing sales back to pre-outbreak levels.

"We don't want to create a false illusion that everything will be available all at one time," Brous said. "It's going to be a slow reintroduction back into market and I think that will be something you'll find industrywide."

Many industry experts were optimistic sales eventually will pick up from where they left off.

"There's going to probably be a slow start, but I think we're going to be able to regain the consumers' confidence rather quickly," Amy Philpott, spokeswoman for the Washington-based United Fresh Produce Association, told SN. "We've done some research that shows that the majority of consumers feel the industry handled this extremely well, was extremely responsible and that with the FDA's announcement, they now feel confident in the product that will be delivered and will purchase spinach in the future."

Wild Oats officials, however, remain leery of bagged spinach and were easing the product back into the market with organic and locally grown bunched spinach. Associates put up signs indicating where the spinach comes from.

"Once the FDA modified their advisory, we put in local organic spinach in the Wild Oats stores in virtually all of our zones," said Don Harris, vice president of produce. "In the Henry's [Farmers Markets] stores, it's local conventional bunched spinach.

"I guess you would say it's the simplest common denominator of spinach. It's something that's been around for years, people are used to seeing it and we felt it was probably the best place for us to enter, to test the waters to see how spinach would sell."

Harris said customers are asking when spinach will be back and that the spinach they do have is selling. Before the FDA limited the warning to certain products, Harris told SN he was reluctant to reintroduce bagged spinach until investigators had pinpointed a source.

"I know all the vendors in the area are examining their food safety practices and best agricultural practices, so in the long run, even though it was a terrible tragedy, it will be better for the industry because they will question everything they're doing to make sure they're taking every bit of the risk they can out of the equation," Harris said. "I believe in the long run, good will come from this, but like I said right now, we're just trying to make spinach available to the customers who want it."

Officials at Griffith, Ind.-based Bakker Produce had no plans to touch spinach before the FDA's advisory was narrowed to certain bagged products with certain sell-by dates from Natural Selection. Now, the company is working to bring in Colorado-grown spinach, owner Chuck Bakker said.

"We haven't gotten back into California for obvious reasons," Bakker said. "I think it's better for the customer relations to keep it out of there until they can clear everything up."

Industry leaders recognize transitioning spinach back into stores won't happen overnight.

"We are obviously going to have to work very hard to rebuild the category to get the spinach sales back to where they were and that will take energy and time, but we're confident that will happen," Philpott said. "On the food safety side, we need to work with the FDA and the state of California, and work together to address any long-term issues."

More than 185 people in multiple states got sick from contaminated spinach, including 97 hospitalizations and at least one death, according to the FDA. Natural Selection recalled all spinach products under several brand names with a date code of Oct. 1 or earlier. Four other companies issued secondary recalls because they received the product from Natural Selection.