DID BRITISH SPROUT SEEDS CAUSE E.COLI OUTBREAK IN FRANCE?

The UK industry and officials are denying it. But the French say it is true - or probably true. Seeds imported from Britain may have caused the latest (hopefully not E.coli 0104) sprout-linked outbreak in France. Is this going to be a modern-day Sprout Waterloo?

We will know in the next few days or weeks. In the meantime, France has halted the sale of fenugreek, mustard and arugula seeds from a British mail order seed and plant company, Thompson & Morgan. Apparently those sprouts on top of the delicious but deadly gazpacho at the Bordeaux charity dinner (where several of the recent victims ate) were grown with seeds from this company.

Company officials are saying it is more likely to have been something the French grower did or didn't do (since it is such a local outbreak - so far). But British authorities are being cautious anyway in protecting the eating public. Today (Saturday) they warned consumers against eating uncooked sprouts. The statement put out by Britain's Food Safety Agency advised that "sprouted seeds should only be eaten if they have been cooked thoroughly until steaming hot throughout." But it also noted that there haven't been any home-grown cases in the UK so far. This warning was just precautionary.

Even if it turns out to be something else (after all, a gazpacho has a lot of uncooked vegetables in it as well - including cucumbers, and this would not be the first time investigators jumped to a wrong conclusion), it is better to be safe than sorry.

Skip the sprouts in your salad, sandwich or soup. And if you are eating out, make a point of asking the restaurant to omit them.

To your good health,
TSF

HAVE DEADLY E.COLI 0104 NOW SPREAD TO SPROUTS IN FRANCE?

It was bound to happen. No sooner do you think an outbreak is over, when it isn't over. It looks like the super-toxic strain of E.coli bacteria that was traced to sprouts grown in Germany, may also have cropped up in sprouts grown in France.

But the French (who saw what slow action did in Germany) are acting much more quickly than the Germans did - and hopefully not fingering the wrong culprit. Not only have sprouted seeds been identified as the suspect food item, but investigators have found that all but one of the people who are ill attended a charity event at a children's play center in a suburb of Bordeaux at which they ate gazpacho garnished with sprouts.

True, the German and French E.coli strains haven't been conclusively matched as yet (it takes a while), and other less-lethal E.coli have been known to turn up in sprouted seeds (as well as other foods) as well. In fact, there were at least 3,500 cases of E.coli reported last year in the EU, with some 93 of these in France (though not all may be linked to food). And there was a case of E.coli contaminated frozen hamburger meat in northern France just about a week ago (investigators say the two cases are not linked).

But what makes one suspect that this French outbreak and the German one might be linked is the high incidence of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) complications with kidney failure among adults who are ill. Only 8 illnesses have been reported in France so far, but of these, apparently 5 (or, 7 - depending on which news report you read) are hospitalized with life-threatening HUS. Even if we assume that the actual number of illnesses is much greater, this is clearly an unusually toxic E.coli - like the E.coli 0104:H4 that turned up in Northern Germany this spring. I hope not.

But if it is, what does this mean? It means that the bacteria was/is most likely in seeds themselves (although they are different kinds of sprouts). That is, the contamination did not come from water used by sprout growers for irrigation or washing, and the cause was not some bacteria-carrying worker or unsanitary conditions at the sprout grower's in Germany. I imagine that this grower is very relieved.

But it can also mean that there is more to come...We have not heard the end of this yet. Until the next post..

To your good health,
TSF