Reacting quickly and comprehensively to The Food and Drug Administration’s ban of fresh and fresh-processed spinach products spurred by a multi-state E. coli outbreak, operators across foodservice are taking action to keep kitchens and customers safe.

Louisville, Colo.-based Rock Bottom Restaurants and Old Chicago Pasta & Pizza got word of the problem late last Thursday and by Friday morning had substituted alternative greens including romaine, arugula and spinach-free mesclun mix on all menu items containing spinach. “We made the choice to keep menuing our spinach dip containing cooked spinach, which has been deemed safe to eat, and we have not seen decreases of sales on that item, thanks to responsible reporting by the media about what is and isn’t safe,” says spokesperson Jen Chavez-Hartman.

High-volume chains and contractors including Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s Corp., Philadelphia-based Aramark and Gaithersburg, Md.-based Sodexho also have pulled fresh spinach and mixes containing the leafy green from salads, sandwiches and other menu items. At business-and-industry accounts, Sodexho is alerting customers to the change through signage in cafeterias; for school clients, it posted notices to parents on Web sites. The company is examining whether some recipes can continue to employ frozen spinach.

On-the-ball vendors play a key role in addressing the crisis. Executive Chef Mark Sapienza of the Langham Hotel Boston had eight cases of baby spinach on hand to build salads for a Saturday wedding. His produce purveyor accepted the product back for credit and immediately shipped six cases of mesclun in return.

At the Wynn Las Vegas’ top-of-the-line restaurant collection, chefs are finding creative stand-ins for spinach in signature dishes. Daniel Boulud Brasserie offers braised Swiss chard made with cream and parsley as a stand-alone side and with Steak au Poivre, while Country Club replaces signature truffle-creamed spinach with truffle-creamed haricot verts. Tableau substitutes leek-and-ricotta ravioli for a spinach-and-ricotta version to pair with dayboat scallops and serves an arugula-and-mascarpone crepe with Pear-Roasted Petrale Sole instead of the original spinach-based recipe. At Corsa Cucina & Bar, beet greens and Swiss chard replace spinach in Ligurian Lamb Ravioli and as a side dish; SW Steak House pairs Lobster Thermidor with kale and Oysters Wynn with Swiss chard instead of spinach.

Despite the industry’s swift response, addressing the outbreak on menus does pose challenges. In New York City, Executive Chef Jason Hicks at Orsay restaurant notes that while he was able to replace the product on his French brasserie menu—serving entrées such as veal tenderloin and Dover sole on beds of Swiss chard rather than spinach, adding escarole and broccoli rabe to side choices and substituting mizuna greens in salads—a rush on the market for leafy greens is creating short supplies in some areas, not to mention that workable alternatives to spinach often bear higher price tags.

Bill Fuller, corporate chef for Big Burrito Restaurant Group in Pittsburgh, says that while making fast substitutions with ingredients such as tatsoi, arugula and kale is easy enough at the group’s upscale, single-unit restaurants, obstacles are greater for 8-unit chain Mad Mex. “We have a lot of items using spinach that need to be cooked quickly, so those recipes don’t lend themselves well to collard greens, mustard greens or kale, and the flavors of arugula and mizuna are too strong. So we’ve had to just take those items of the menu and see where we are at the end of the week,” he says.

RESOURCES:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Spinach and E. coli Outbreak Updates

Centers for Disease Control E. coli homepage

National Restaurant Association Statement in Response to Spinach Foodborne Illness Outbreak