Bagged salads have been linked to a foodborne illness in the UK that infected in the region of 3,000 people.
Details of the contamination have been released by the Health Protection Agency. It was in May last year the infections occurred, but only now has the full story emerged.
The Agency has linked the illness to bagged spinach sold in Asda and Morrisons supermarkets. Morissons have been vehement in their denial of such claims, however.
The identification of the source is significant as the bags in question were labelled as washed and ready to eat.
Though able to identify Asda and Morrisons as sources of the outbreak, the HPA also pointed out that other retailers were likely to have used the same sources, affecting other chains as well.
The bug that caused the symptoms, which were reported by 300 people, a tenth of the number suspected to have been infected, was Cryptosporidium. The bug is most often found in water contaminated with animal faeces, such as sheep dung.
Director of food safety at the FSA, Dr Alison Gleadle, said she believed this was an isolated incident and that, generally, consumers can trust labels which describe salads and other products as ready to eat.
