Sprouts ‘not cause’ of E coli outbreak

IN A surprising U-turn, German officials said initial tests published yesterday provided no evidence that sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany were the cause of the country’s deadly E coli outbreak.

The Lower-Saxony state agriculture ministry said 23 of 40 samples from the sprout farm suspected of being behind the outbreak have tested negative for the highly aggressive, “super-toxic” strain of E coli bacteria.

It said tests were still under way on the other 17 sprout samples.