Germany lifts food warning for cucumbers, lettuce
Vegetable sprouts caused the E. coli infection that has killed at least 27 people, and Germans can resume eating lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, the nation's disease-control agency said.
Based on interviews with restaurant patrons and cooks and a review of food deliveries, there's a “high probability” sprouts were the cause, Reinhard Burger, head of the Robert Koch Institute, said at a Berlin news conference today. The number of new cases is declining, though the outbreak isn't over yet, he said. Sprouts should still be avoided, officials said.
“There is no signal any more that tomatoes, cucumbers and salad are responsible for the outbreak in North Germany,” Andreas Hensel, head of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said at the news conference. “Now these products are not suspicious anymore. It's healthy to eat them.”
Demand slumped for vegetables across the European Union after health officials mistakenly blamed Spanish cucumbers as sources of the outbreak. Vegetable growers in the 27-nation bloc are losing as much as 400 million euros ($580 million) a week from a drop in demand related to the outbreak, Brussels-based farm lobby Copa-Cogeca said this week.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos proposed on June 8 that producers be given 210 million euros in support, up from an initial plan for 150 million euros. As much as 80 percent of vegetables are being destroyed in some areas because there is no market, according to Copa-Cogeca.
Organic Sprouts
The outbreak, which officials have said was centered in the northern German city of Hamburg, has sickened at least 3,082 people since May 2, with the number of deaths rising to 31 from the 27 reported as of yesterday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said today.
Health officials in the state of Lower Saxony on June 5 identified organic sprouts from a farm near Uelzen, Germany, as a possible source. Produce from the property, Gaertnerhof Bienenbuettel, was recalled and its customers were informed immediately.
The farm, which has grown sprouts, is located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Hamburg. Its products include radish, red-cabbage, alfalfa, broccoli, onion and garlic sprouts, as well as sunflower seedlings, according to information on its website. Gaertnerhof has about 18 employees.
State Advisory
Natascha Manski, a state spokeswoman in Hanover, Lower Saxony's capital, said by phone today that the warning against eating sprouts applies to all 18 varieties that the farm grows.
While tests didn't turn up bacteria in products from the Gaertnerhof farm, it remains a focus of the investigation, which is continuing, the Koch Institute's Burger said.
The “chain of evidence is so overwhelming” that it warrants today's announcement, he said. Contaminated seeds may have caused the outbreak, Burger said.
Traces of E. coli may be undetectable now if the offending produce was grown from a depleted batch of contaminated seed weeks ago, said James Paton, head of the bacterial pathogenesis laboratory at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, said June 7.