E coli seeds ‘still in food chain’

CONTAMINATED Egyptian fenugreek seeds are probably the source of Europe’s deadly E coli outbreaks, health experts warned, predicting there could be more infections from seeds still in the food chain.

The tainted seeds may be behind the massive food poisoning outbreak in Germany beginning in May that has killed 49 people and infected more than 4,000 in 15 countries, as well as a much smaller outbreak in France in June. More than 800 people have also developed a life-threatening kidney complication after catching the bug.

Today, the national French laboratory said the E coli strain that left 15 people ill in Bordeaux is genetically similar to the one in Germany. The World Health Organisation said this increased the proof that the outbreaks were linked, but scientists still have not found any contaminated seeds.

“There’s no smoking gun,” Ian Henderson, professor of microbial biology at the University of Birmingham, said today.

“But it would be unusual to have the same rare strain found in Germany and France without some link.”

Fenugreek leaves are commonly used as an herb and also in curry.

If the fenugreek seeds were contaminated at the source – during production in Egypt – they could have been freeze-dried before being sold, allowing the E coli bacteria to live for years. Once water is added to grow the fenugreek sprouts, the entire sprout would be infected and washing would not help get rid of the potentially deadly bacteria.

“Sprouts are biological time bombs,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said. “If they’re infected, once they’re rehydrated and distributed, they could take the bacteria anywhere.”

European food safety and health officials have asked Germany and France to quickly find out where seeds from the suspected contaminated Egyptian batch may have been sold. French farmers apparently bought their seeds from Thompson & Morgan, a large British mail-order company.

Thompson & Morgan said their supplier bought fenugreek sprouting seeds from Egypt, which were then exclusively sold into a French garden market. The company does not sell sprouting seeds to commercial farms.