Federal prosecutors have decided against charging companies involved in the September 2006 E. coli outbreak traced to contaminated spinach.

Following the outbreak, which led to the deaths of three people and sickened about 200 others, FBI agents raided two produce processing plants and several farms for evidence of environmental and food-safety violations. The investigation did

Fresh spinach that sparked a nationwide E. coli outbreak last fall was grown on a roughly 50-acre plot in San Benito County, health officials told state lawmakers.

Officials said at a legislative hearing Tuesday that investigators identified the grower who was farming that plot, which was in the second year of a three-year transition to