E coli fears: Public warned not to eat raw bean sprouts

A BRITISH-BASED mail order seed company has been linked to an E coli outbreak in France that has led Ireland’s food safety watchdog to advise consumers not to eat raw bean sprouts.

Most of those who fell ill in France are believed to have eaten a chilled soup, garnished with rocket and mustard vegetable sprouts, served at a school fete in Begles in Bordeaux.

Seed sprouts sold by Thompson and Morgan have been linked to the eight suspected cases of E coli.

The sprouting varieties of fenugreek, mustard and rocket seeds have since been withdrawn from sale. However, Thompson and Morgan managing director Paul Hansord said he had no plans to recall seeds from shops and customers.

The company, based in Ipswich, said it had sold thousands of the seed packets with no reported problems and that it was highly unlikely to be the seeds, but the way they were used and handled.

At least two of those who fell ill in France have the same E coli strain that caused 40 deaths in Germany this year but no suggestion has been made that the outbreaks are linked.

According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), it is unlikely that the bean sprouts that made people ill in France came from the German organic bean sprout farm because it was closed and did not export bean sprouts. The FSAI said there had been no cases in Ireland of illnesses associated with the strain of E coli identified in France and the advice was being issued to consumers as a precaution.

“Until we identify the precise source of this outbreak, we are advising Irish consumers not to eat raw or uncooked bean sprouts and we are advising caterers not to serve raw bean sprouts,” said FSAI chief executive Professor Alan Reilly.

“Bean sprouts (or sprouted seeds) are produced from a wide variety of seeds. Despite extensive investigation across Germany, the exact type of origin of contaminated beans/seeds has not yet been identified,” he said.

Prof Reilly said the second outbreak in France suggested that there could be a source of contaminated seeds in Europe.

“However, until the investigations in France and Germany are concluded, as a precautionary measure we advise consumers not to eat raw bean sprouts for the time being,” he said.

The British Food Standards Agency said it was aware of a possible link to sprouting seeds from a British-based company and the E coli outbreak in France but no cases of food poisoning had been reported in Britain.