San Francisco, April 23 - The families of three octogenarian women whose deaths were linked to last year's E. coli outbreak from tainted spinach have settled wrongful death lawsuits against companies that brought the produce to market, a lawyer for the families said on Monday.
Terms of the settlements between the families and the three companies that grew, handled and sold the tainted California spinach are confidential, said lawyer William Marler, whose Seattle-based law firm represented the families.
"We have nearly 90 other cases that are still pending against the three companies," Marler added, referring to Mission Organics, Natural Selection Foods and Dole Food Co.
Natural Selection Foods spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said: "We are hopeful that these settlements bring some closure."
"Everyone at Natural Selection Foods remains deeply saddened by the human toll of the outbreak," Cabaluna said. "As we said we would do from the beginning we tried to work as honestly, fairly and expeditiously as possible to resolve the cases."
A Dole spokesman declined to comment, and Ken Gorman, a lawyer for Mission Organics, said under the terms of the settlement the company could not comment.
More than 200 people fell sick from the tainted spinach last fall, prompting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-September to warn consumers to avoid fresh bagged spinach and launch an intense search for the cause of the E. coli contamination.
Investigators believe wild pigs may have spread the bacteria to a California spinach field after they foraged in a nearby cattle pasture.