Why are outbreaks of foodborne illness, like when 53 are killed and 4,400 sickened from eating sprouts produced in Germany from Egyptian seeds, referred to in media reports as ‘scares.’

This wasn’t a scare, it was a sprout shitstorm. Neither the first nor last.

Afrique en ligne reports the European Union will soon lift a ban on Egyptian sprout seeds after an EU delegation, which just wrapped up a visit to Egypt, produces a report in about 10 days.

Egypt's Agriculture Export Council chairman, Sherif Al-Beltaguy stated that the national reports from agricultural and health authorities on seeds in Egypt were good and that the EU delegation found them acceptable.

Egypt had denied responsibility for the E.coli outbreak, saying the suspected batch dated back to November 2009 and contained dried seeds, arguing the bacteria could not have survived for so long.

I look forward to some sort of data, especially E. coli testing of germinated seeds.
 

As the death toll in the German E. coli O104 sprout outbreak rose to 50 with 4,121 ill including 845 with hemolytic uremic syndrome, Egypt's ministry of agriculture said, don’t blame Egypt.

The head of Egypt's Central Administration of Agricultural Quarantine, Ali Suleiman, said claims by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that Egyptian fenugreek seeds exported in 2009 and 2010 may have been implicated in the outbreak were "completely untrue."



"The presence of this bacteria in Egypt has not been proven at all, and it has not been recorded. He said the Egyptian company that exported the seeds in 2009 has stressed in a letter that it had exported the fenugreek to Holland and not to Germany, Britain or France.



On Wednesday, the EFSA said a "rapid risk assessment" it conducted with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), had shown the Egyptian seeds could have been to blame.

The U.K. Food Standards Agency reiterated its advice that sprouted seeds should not be eaten raw, while Bloomberg reports that crudités – fancy French word for raw vegetables -- eaten at a children’s center in Bordeaux are helping doctors in their two-month hunt for the source of the outbreak.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, “Fenugreek is showing up clearly in the French outbreak and showing up clearly in the German outbreak.”

The link to fenugreek, a clover-like plant used as both an herb and a spice, was identified after disease investigators found it was served at an event attended by patients in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles.

A cold buffet was served consisting of crudites, or raw vegetables, three dips, industrially produced gazpacho, a choice of two cold soups, pasteurized fruit juices and individual dishes composed of white grapes, tomatoes, sesame seeds, chives, industrially produced soft cheese and fruit, the report said.

The soups were served with fenugreek sprouts, a small amount of which were also placed on the crudite dishes. Mustard and rocket sprouts, still growing on cotton wool, were used to decorate the dishes, the authors said.

The sprouts had been grown from rocket, mustard and fenugreek seeds planted at the center the previous week. The seeds were bought from a branch of a national chain of gardening retailers, having been supplied by a distributor in the U.K., the authors said.

The European agencies advised consumers not to grow sprouts for their own use or to eat sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they have been thoroughly cooked.
 

Four-year-old Bodie Elliot from Canterbury, U.K., (right, photo from Kent Online) was struck down with E.coli on a family holiday will now need a kidney transplant, his parents revealed today.

Kent Online reports that parents Vernon and Emma were left devastated after doctors told them.

The couple all had stomach upsets after eating at a hotel in the popular resort of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt in September 2008.

When they returned home, Bodie quickly became increasingly ill and was taken to hospital.

Bodie nearly died after suffering kidney failure and to be put on dialysis and have a blood transfusion.

But he continues to need hospital care and is now being treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

A consultant there has just told the family Bodie's kidneys are only functioning at around 50 per cent capacity.

Mr Elliot said the couple remained locked in legal dispute with the hotel over what they claim were poor food hygiene standards that led to themselves and Bodie falling ill after eating a beef lasagne from a buffet.

But in an email to the family, the hotel's insurers deny any responsibility claiming no other guests reported feeling ill at the time.

It added that the business is regularly inspected for health and hygiene and its procedures found to be "acceptable and appropriate."

Mr Elliott said,

"I will continue to fight for compensation for my son but we also want to make people aware of what a deadly bug this is because we wouldn't want another family and child to go through what we have."