France pinpoints E.coli outbreak to UK seed firm

France said today that it has halted the sale of three types of seeds linked to a British company after an E.coli outbreak led to eight people being admitted to hospital.

French health officials said the results of tests on two of the eight showed an infection of the same strain of E.coli which killed 44 people – all but one in Germany – and affected another 3,700 who had been in Germany.

Commerce Minister Frederic Lefevre said yesterday that the order involved fenugreek, mustard and arugula seeds linked to Thompson & Morgan, based in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The company’s website says it has been an expert in the garden since 1855.

An investigation by France’s competition, consumption and fraud prevention agency found two of the eight people taken to hospital had consumed sprouts from the three seeds at a school fair in the south-western town of Begles.

Thompson & Morgan told the BBC it sold "thousands of packets and had no reported problems''.

“It is highly unlikely to be the seeds themselves but the way that they were used and handled,” it said in a statement.

Managing director Paul Hansord said: “We make sure that everything we do is to a high standard.”

He said the firm buys its seeds in bulk from suppliers around the world and those under investigation may have come from Italy.