E Coli Bacteria

A California food company is recalling 153,630 pounds of frozen ground beef after an E. coli outbreak shut down a Boy Scout camp in Virginia this week and sickened at least 22 people, health officials said Thursday. The meat from Azusa-based S&S Foods was intended for institutional use and food service companies, which normally supply restaurants, and wasn't sold at the retail level. Before the recall, the beef was shipped to distribution centers in Milwaukee and Allentown, Pa.

Three recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses traced to bagged spinach or lettuce from California have led some scientists and food safety advocates to suggest that packaging greens might contribute to the spread of a lethal strain of \o7E. coli\f7 bacteria. In particular, the centralized processing of fresh greens can increase the risk of more widespread contamination, just as tainted beef from one steer can find its way into hundreds of packages of ground meat, said Dr. David W.K.

September's national spinach recall has shaken consumer confidence in the safety of leafy green vegetables, according to a national survey conducted in November. The survey, whose results are to be released today by Rutgers University, suggests that the broad recall could have lasting effects on spinach and other similar vegetables. Consumers felt uncertain and threw away other bagged produce that was not affected by the recall.

In the days that followed Taco Bell's \o7E. coli \f7outbreak late last year, the Mexican fast food chain could count on people like Myles Jeffrey, a 16-year-old teen actor from Seal Beach. Taco Bell sales fell 5% in the fourth quarter of 2006, its parent company said Monday. During that period, tainted lettuce served by the chain caused an \o7E. coli \f7outbreak that sickened more than 70 East Coast customers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put a damper on hopes for legislation to protect consumers from lethal bacterial contamination of California-grown lettuce and spinach, saying he favors a voluntary, industry-run program to impose controls on growers. In the wake of two major \o7E. coli\f7 outbreaks last fall, state Sen.

The Klaus family has lived the fast-food industry's nightmare: people getting sick from \o7E. coli\f7. A few days after picking up a dinner of hamburgers and chicken nuggets at a Wendy's drive-in, the Salem, Ore., family received a call from county health inspectors inquiring whether they had eaten food from the chain. JoAnn Klaus already knew something was wrong: Her 4-year-old son, Evan, was hospitalized with diarrhea and dehydration, and 23-month-old Scott had similar symptoms.

Boskovich Farms Inc., the Oxnard green onion grower linked and then cleared in Taco Bell's \o7E. coli \f7outbreak in December, is firing back at the fast-food chain. The grower contended in a lawsuit last week that the Irvine-based chain's actions libeled the farming concern and destroyed much of its business.

Seven people who ate at a southern Orange County restaurant have become ill with the \o7E. coli\f7 bacteria since the weekend, three of them seriously enough to be hospitalized, health officials said Monday. Authorities said the victims ate at the Foothill Ranch Souplantation in the 26000 block of Towne Centre Drive in Lake Forest. Six of them dined there March 23 or 24. The seventh, a restaurant spokeswoman said, is believed to have eaten there March 25.

Almost all of the people sickened by the \o7E. coli \f7bacteria after eating at a Lake Forest restaurant were under age 18, Orange County health officials said Tuesday. Three of the seven who became ill were hospitalized. Health officials said they were still searching for the source of the bacteria that caused the diners to become ill about a week after eating at the Foothill Ranch Souplantation in Lake Forest between March 23 and 25. Of the diners, six were under 18. The seventh was over 70.

A 12-year-old girl remained in intensive care Wednesday after being infected with the \o7E. coli \f7bacteria at a Lake Forest restaurant, hospital and health officials said. Earlier reports said she had been released. After being diagnosed with the most serious complication of \o7E. coli\f7 Wednesday afternoon, the girl was transferred from Children's Hospital of Orange County at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo to the CHOC facility in Orange.