Spinach and food safety

A UPI story reveals that spinach sales are still sagging. From the story:
Packaged spinach sales were down 37 percent the week ended Dec. 23, compared with the same period a year earlier, to $976,699, the Perishables Group of West Dundee, Ill., said. Bulk spinach sales, a smaller market, were off 22 percent. Sales of packaged salads that contain spinach are down 28 percent year-over-year to $1.4 million, it said.


It is surprising that sales are apparently lagging by that margin. I would have guessed that retail sales of bagged spinach were off by 10% to 15% off at this point. However, spinach has been beaten up pretty badly, from sketches on late night comedy shows to a mortgage commercial I've been hearing on the radio for weeks. The dialogue goes something like this: "You'd be stupid not to refinance. But not as stupid as my brother - he eats bagged spinach!" I kid you not.


Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office yesterday published a document that has some criticism of federal food safety oversight.

Example:

However, the patchwork nature of the federal oversight of food safety calls into question whether the government can plan more strategically to inspect food production processes, identify and react more quickly to any outbreaks of contaminated food, and focus on achieving results to promote the safety and integrity of the nation's food supply.

More grist for the mill as Congress looks at federal oversight of food safety in coming weeks and months.