WASHINGTON (AP) — Spinach found in the refrigerator of a person who was sickened by E. coli was contaminated with the bacteria, the “smoking gun” that investigators have sought for the origin of the deadly outbreak, health officials say.

Arizona and Colorado, meanwhile, joined the list Wednesday of states reporting E. coli cases.

Federal and state investigators focused their hunt Wednesday on nine farms in California’s greater Salinas Valley, said Dr. Mark Horton, the state public health officer. They also were checking processing plants, said Horton, who called the bag of tainted Dole baby spinach the “smoking gun” in the case.

Despite closing in on the source of the bacteria, officials continued to recommend that consumers not eat fresh spinach.

“Yesterday we had it down to California. Today we’ve got it down to three counties,” said Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “We want it down to a salad bowl and eventually a spinach leaf.”

The tainted bag came from New Mexico, Health Department officials for that state said.

A person who ate some of the leafy greens became one of 146 people in 23 states sickened by the outbreak.

One person has died.

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