Bentonville, Ark., Sep. 15 - Clerks at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. nationwide spent the night pulling bags of spinach off their shelves after an E. coli outbreak in 10 states.
One person has died in Wisconsin and dozens of others have been sickened so far. Federal officials are linking the illesses to bagged spinach.
Washing the spinach might not kill the sometimes-deadly bacteria.
At midnight Friday, Wal-Mart, which accounts for about a quarter of the groceries sold in the U.S., started pulling bagged spinach and all bagged salads that contain spinach off its shelves at 2,800 Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Clubs.
The company also programmed its cash registers to not ring up any products that contain bagged spinach in case any bags weren't pulled.