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German officials see no E.coli fault at organic farm
1 of 5. A vendor sells vegetables at a market in central Belgrade June 11, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Ivan Milutinovic
BERLIN |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Officials investigating an organic farm in northern Germany said on Saturday they do not expect to take legal action against it for causing an E.coli outbreak that has killed at least 31 people.
Authorities link the epidemic, the deadliest in modern history, to contaminated bean sprouts and shoots grown at the farm that made their way to restaurants and kitchens across the country.
"Everything we have looked into until now shows the farm was flawless," said Gert Hahne, spokesman for the consumer protection office of Lower Saxony state. "It is hygienic and followed all the regulations.
"No matter how you look at it we don't see any fault with the farm or legal ground to hold them accountable," he said by telephone. "You cannot punish someone for having bad luck."
However the farm has been shut down. Authorities say results of tests taken there have yet to place E.coli on site, but that some 500 samples are still being examined -- including some from the farm's seeds, which came from Europe and Asia.
The German government had come under fire at home and around Europe for failing to pin down the cause of the month-long outbreak, which only on Friday was officially identified as having come from the bean sprouts.
Scientists said then that traces of the deadly strain were detected in a packet of bean sprouts from the farm found in a family's rubbish bin after two of the family members fell ill from eating them. The results were confirmed on Saturday.
About a quarter of the near 3,000 people sick from E.coli have developed a severe complication from the bacteria called haemolytic uraemic syndrome, or HUS, which affects the blood, kidneys and nervous system.
Authorities warn that the particularly virulent outbreak is still a threat, and the death toll may rise despite signs of a slowdown in new infections.
Late on Friday, Health Minister Daniel Bahr responded to mounting criticism over the handling of the outbreak, telling broadcaster ZDF that information should have been shared sooner.
Several scientists say the investigation should have focused on bean sprouts earlier.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Sprouts—regardless of their source—have been identified by FDA as requiring special food safety protocols because of the potential for pathogen growth during the sprouting process. Contaminated seed is the likely source for most reported sprout-associated outbreaks.
All food, whether conventionally or organically produced, is susceptible to E. coli. That is why strong food safety regulations and practices are critical. FDA, as recently as last week, and the Centers for Disease Control acknowledge there is no evidence to indicate that organic products are more likely to be contaminated by E. coli.
In the United States, organic farmers and processors have tools in their tool kits that place organic agriculture at no disadvantage in terms of food safety.
In fact, organic producers take a much broader view of “food safety,” by prohibiting harmful practices such as using toxic and persistent pesticides that have been linked to harming children’s cognitive development, the application of sewage sludge on the land, the sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics that have been linked to breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria including virulent strains of E. coli, and the use synthetic growth hormones that have questionable effects on humans.
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