(CNSNews.com) - A California farm in transition to organic status has been identified as a source of the E. coli outbreak in spinach last year, a discovery likely to add to existing concerns about possible safety issues surrounding organic foods.

While skeptics of organic foods are stepping up criticism, the discovery should be considered in proportion, said Craig Minowa, environmental scientist for the Organic Consumers Association.

"If you look at the history of food-borne illness in the U.S., it almost all comes from conventional farms," Minowa told Cybercast News Service. "That's not to say we couldn't run into problems on organic farms."

The California Department of Health Services confirmed last week that a 50-acre field in San Benito County farm -- two-thirds of the way through a three-year process of moving towards being officially organic -- was one source of the E. coli outbreak last year that killed three people and sickened 200.

The findings affirm what critics have long believed about organic foods, said Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Center for Global Food Issues at the free-market Hudson Institute.

"No system of farming can assure food safety," Avery told Cybercast News Service. "This, at best, shows organic food is no safer than other foods. At worst, it shows they are significantly less safe than other foods."

The $15 billion organic food industry has long claimed the food is healthier and safer because it is grown completely naturally without chemicals and artificial fertilizers. However organic fertilizer -- chiefly manure or plant life -- can be the main cause of food-borne illness, evidence has shown.

"It was either the fertilizer or manure from the free range grass-fed cattle" that caused the contaminated spinach at the California farm, Avery said. "No one can tell you where it came from. But one way or another, one of the organic food industry's sacred cows gets gored."

Minowa said he would expect advocates for large food corporations to use this issue to smear organic-grown food.

"It's really a matter of sensationalism," Minowa said. "There is a lot of incentive to not support organic foods. Most of the industry isn't organic. These are the type of things readers look for in a press piece."

The Organic Consumers Association said the main cause of E. coli is the fact that 80 percent of non-organic beef in the U.S. is slaughtered by four companies, 75 percent of non-organic pre-cut salad mixes are processed by two companies, and 30 percent of non-organic milk is processed by one company.

Research is conflicting, said Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, a professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. However, he said, the likely source of contamination in the spinach case is consistent with his findings regarding green leafy vegetables and its source of fertilizer.

"As long as you use manure from a cow, there is a chance of contamination there," Diez Gonzalez told Cybercast News Service. "Cattle manure is linked to E. coli more than other manure."

A 2004 study conducted by Diez-Gonzalez showed organically grown produce had a 9.7 percent positive sample for the presence of E. coli bacteria versus only 1.6 percent for conventional produce on farms in Minnesota. That study looked at 600 samples.

However, a follow-up study of 2,000 vegetables completed last year showed little difference in the risk between conventionally grown vegetables and organically grown vegetables, Diez-Gonzalez said.

The more recent study showed that leafy green vegetables were generally more prone to have E. coli bacteria than other vegetables.

"The bottom line is that research seems to be showing a trend, but the trend is not organic and conventional," Diez-Gonzalez said. "It seems to be based on the vegetable."

Though the state of California did not specifically identify the property where the contaminated spinach came from, a law firm which brought a class-action suit against Dole Food Company -- which packaged some of the contaminated spinach -- added Mission Organics to the list of defendants.

Mission Organics was reportedly using property on Paicines Ranch in San Benito County to grow spinach.

A Mission Organics spokesperson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In a statement posted on their website regarding the outbreak, Paicines Ranch said: "The Paicines Ranch is not under investigation by any government agency. We lease row crop land to farms. If you want to know whether a particular farmer is under investigation, you should ask them. Since we neither farm nor process row crops of any kind, we are unable to comment further."

Dole spokeswoman Marianne Duong Thursday declined to comment on the case since it is still under litigation.

In a written statement on the E. coli contamination last September, the company said it supported a voluntary recall of its spinach and pledged to assist government agencies in their investigation.

"We are terribly saddened by these recent events," the Dole statement said. "We express our deepest sympathies to those affected."

The location of the contamination really doesn't matter to the lawsuit, said attorney Bill Marler, who represents 87 people filing a lawsuit against Dole Food Company. Nor does it matter to him that it came from a farm that was moving toward becoming an organic farm, since the spinach wasn't sold as organic.

"There are steps all parties could have taken to prevent the contamination from getting in the spinach," Marler said. "It's not really very significant. This is a strict product liability case and the target is Dole. How a product becomes contaminated is not something I care about."

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