Canadian grocers can begin stocking U.S. brands of spinach again, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced.

The federal agency said Monday that it will begin allowing spinach from the United States into the country with the exception of produce grown in California's San Benito and Monterey counties, where officials continue to focus their investigation into an E. coli outbreak. CFIA officials travelled to California in early October to review the findings of the U.S. investigation.

"The Agency has taken a precautionary approach to protect Canadians from exposure to E. coli 0157:H7 and is confident that spinach grown outside of these counties does not represent a risk to Canadian consumers," the agency said in a release.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has introduced a new identification labelling program that will allow Canadian officials to reject any produce grown in the San Benito and Monterey counties. The CFIA also announced it has improved its import and domestic microbial sampling procedures.

A health hazard alert was first issued in mid-September, when reports of E. coli poisoning first surfaced in the United States. The CFIA also issued a border alert, blocking all imports of fresh imports at the border.

The contaminated spinach killed three people and sickened another 204, including one Ottawa woman.

Last week, U.S. health officials declared the E. coli spinach outbreak over given that a month had passed without any new incidents of illness. The last illness linked to the tainted spinach was reported on Sept. 25.

E. coli stands for Escherichia coli, a bacteria commonly found in the intestines of animals and humans.