Dr. Nichola
Kinsinger thinks she has a solution to the challenge of ridding spinach of
food-poisoning bacteria, such as E. coli 0157:H7.
She
says bleach isn’t totally effective because the leaves are bumpy, meaning there
are places where 1,000 times less chlorine is delivered to kill bacteria.
Her
solution is to add titanium dioxide to the wash water.
There
have been a number of food poisoning outbreaks traced to spinach, including one
case in California that sickened people across North America and prompted many
restaurant chains to eliminate spinach from their salads.
It
has been speculated that the California issue arose because wild animals got
under field-protecting fences and pooped on spinach.
The
poop might have gone into wash water and infected a large volume of spinach.
