Europe has banned the import of fenugreek seeds and beans from Egypt after food safety investigators found that a single shipment of fenugreek seeds from there was the most likely source of a highly toxic E. coli epidemic in Germany and France, which claimed forty-nine lives.
The report by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) showed that a single shipment of fenugreek seeds is cause of both a major epidemic of highly toxic E. coli – STEC O104:H4 – in Germany and a smaller epidemic in France. It advised the officials to make all efforts to prevent any further exposure.
According to The European Commission, all fenugreek seeds exported to Europe since 2009 by the Egyptian company identified as the source of the contaminated batch must be withdrawn, tested and destroyed. It did not identifying the company involved. E.coli bacteria flourish in environments, rich in nutrients like the human guts.
The strain of STEC O104:H4 especially has been identified as sticky, making it probably able to latch on to leaves, seeds and other foodstuffs. In western Germany, health watchdogs are conducting wide-scale E.coli tests in the municipality of Paderborn after renewed cases of the rare strain were reported among primary school pupils.
They tested more than eight hundred pupils, teachers, supervisors and pensioners. The ban covers imports of items such as fenugreek seeds, fruit and spores used for sowing, leguminous vegetables, shelled or unshelled, dried leguminous vegetables, shelled or unshelled, soya beans and other oil seeds and oleaginous fruit.
According EU health commissioner John Dalli, a result of EFSA’s findings, the EU would ban imports of some seeds and beans from Egypt until thirty-first October. The report published today leads them to withdrawing some Egyptian seeds from the EU market and to a temporary ban on imports of some seeds and beans originating from that country.
He added that the commission will continue to monitor the situation very closely and will take additional measures if necessary.