No answers!

This is extremely disappointing. The FDA and state officials said at a hearing Tuesday that they likely will never know the exact cause of bacterial contamination that was linked to spinach last year.
Here is a link from the San Jose Mercury that gives a report of the FDA hearing in Oakland.
From the story:

The disclosure, just weeks before a final report on the investigation is expected to be released, came at a hearing where representatives from consumer groups and a national trade association for the produce industry called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to set mandatory rules to assure that fruit and vegetables are safe to eat.
FDA and state health officials, however, said they favor voluntary guidelines and industry self-policing, including a set of standards that California growers are expected to adopt next week. The government officials said they would not rule out mandatory regulation in the future.
Growing and packing practices need to improve said Dr. David Acheson, the chief medical officer for the FDA's food safety office.
But he also warned that another outbreak of food-borne illness will likely occur.


TK: What will happen when another E. coli outbreak occurs? Even though the FDA is clearly trying to prepare the public for that possibility, the heightened awareness of the media and consumers to foodborne illness outbreaks raises the stakes for the industry and increases pressure on the FDA for mandatory regulation.