Indiana salad plant will close after spinach scare

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A nationwide spinach recall caused by an E. coli outbreak is prompting Ready Pac Produce Inc. to close a salad processing plant that employs about 200 workers.\nReady Pac, which produces fresh-cut salads, fruits and vegetables, plans to stop production next month at its plant in Plymouth, about 20 miles south of South Bend, company officials said.\n"The entire industry has dropped quite a bit" as a result of the E. coli outbreak traced to spinach farms in California, said Steve Dickstein, Ready Pac's vice president of marketing.\nSeverance packages and job referrals will be available to some workers, depending on how long they have been with the Irwindale, Calif.-based company, he said.\nA large Hispanic population works at the company, said Rebecca Griffy, director of Heart and Hands, a group that plans to help workers affected by the shutdown. She said the closure will hurt the entire community.\n"There's going to be some discomfort for a while," Griffy said.\nPlymouth Mayor Gary Cook said the local economy is fragile.\n"The economy isn't still quite where a lot of people think it is," he said. \nReady Pac plans to keep equipment in the building, which will not be listed for sale immediately, but Dickstein said the company's future is uncertain.\n"We don't have future plans at this point in time," Dickstein said.\nBut Dickstein did not completely rule out re-opening the plant.\n"Maybe, at some point, if business picks up, they will in fact start production again in Plymouth," he said.