As the FDA narrows the search for the cause of a nationwide outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 tied to bagged spinach, a specialist in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences said the incident may lead to tighter controls on food safety at the farm level.

Luke LaBorde, an associate professor of food science who studies food-safety issues associated with fruits and vegetables, told Penn State Live that the FDA has been concerned about green, leafy vegetables having more than their share of contamination problems.

"The FDA had been focusing on lettuce, and now they’ve added spinach to their ‘alert list’ of commodities," LaBorde said. "Once investigators determine how this occurred, the next step will be to find new methods to prevent this from happening again."