<"Sprouts are really a SAFE wonder veggie"!> Sprouts have many wonderful qualities as a food ingredient. It is fundamentally a safe vegetable that can be grown in a hygienically controlled factory in a short amount of time,without the use of any agrochemicals and regardless of weather condition. It is a truly wonderful vegetable that contains an abundance of functional substances and nutrition ( generated in the process of sprouting) that are invaluable to health and dieting. However,the recent transmission of bad news throughout the world, making "sprouts" into the culprit of all evils, has been an extremely unfortunate matter. Up to now,in terms of sprouts, safety issues have been raised sporadically throughout the world (especially in the West) due to Salmonella contaminations and partial measures have been taken against them. Last year, a most tragic outbreak occurred in Europe due to pathogenic E-coli:0-104, believed to have been caused by sprouts of the fenugreek seed--after this incident, the safety of sprouts has become a large problem across the globe. Under such a situation, what I feel to have been the most unfortunate is that there has not been a thorough investigation into the sprouts that caused the problem and that no concrete and effective measure for improvement has been taken against it. Specifically, I believe that it was a safety issue of the raw material of fenugreek seeds(not common)imported from Egypt and/or an insufficient implementation of the HACCP system in the process from seed disinfection at the factory that grew them-in other words, I believe the cause was not sprouts but a particular kind of sprout or production management issue. However, in the numerous comments that I have read, many have emphasized that "all sprouts are dangerous", and not only the particular sprout. I am anxious that this may be giving the wrong awareness of sprouts to many people in the world. The Japanese have enjoyed of the highest average life expectancies in the world, but the production and consumption of sprouts per person in Japan also ranks among the highest in the world. Most of these sprouts are bean sprouts, with many growers throughout the nation, including large-scale factories producing up to 250 tons per day. The main production factories are hygienically controlled under the HACCP system that includes the disinfection of seeds and equipment. Furthermore, no incidents of outbreaks due to the contamination of pathogenic bacteria have been reported for the past 40 years. Sprouts for raw consumption, such as alfalfa,broccoli and radish sprouts, have also been produced and consumed along with the popular bean sprouts. In terms of these ready-to-eat sprouts, there was an outbreak in 1996 due to radish (cress)sprouts contaminated by pathogenic E-coli:0-157, instigated by a small-scale grower's factory at which hygienic management was insufficient. This contamination was brought about by contaminated water from neighboring pasture mixing in to the well water used at the growing factory. At the time, with the cooperation of government institutions, a guidance was created for the safe production of radish sprouts, after which trust was regained in the sprout, and production quantities have increaced. Now, no foodborne bacteriaare detected from investigations by the government or research institutions. Sprouts that are grown under a HACCP system and with facilities that pursue safety and quality are "SAFE". I firmly believe that what is at fault for the safety issue is not vegetable itself, but the problem on the human side of the production equation.