A New York Times editorial comments on the recent spinach-related E. coli outbreak:

“Just when many of us thought that eating lots of fresh green leafy vegetables was the key to good health, along comes an outbreak of bacterial contamination in bagged spinach that has frightened consumers and led to a recall of all affected brands. The contamination, detected only in spinach packaged at a particular processing plant in central California, reveals how silly we were to assume that spinach in sealed bags would necessarily be safer than fresh spinach exposed to the environment.”