Seeds blamed for E coli outbreak 'sent to UK'

THE contaminated seeds behind Europe's deadly E coli outbreak were shipped to Britain, the European Food Safety Authority has confirmed.

The European Union has now banned the import of the seeds from Egypt and said member states have to ensure that all are withdrawn from the market, sampled and then destroyed.

One 15,000kg lot of fenugreek seeds from Egypt, purchased by a German distributor, is now believed to be behind the E coli outbreak that has claimed the lives of 51 people in Germany, Sweden and the US.

More than 400kg of the seeds were imported from Germany by Thomson & Morgan, the UK's largest online seed and plant store, based in Ipswich. The company has voluntarily withdrawn them while tests are conducted.

Yesterday the FSA confirmed that one lot of contaminated fenugreek seeds from Egypt was probably the source of the recent food poisoning outbreaks in Germany and France, but the number of European countries that received parts of the suspected lot is "much larger than previously known". Fenugreek seeds from the suspect Egyptian lot were imported to a large German distributor. Those seeds were then sold to 70 companies, 54 of them in Germany, the centre of the outbreak, and to 16 companies in 11 other European countries including Britain.

Fenugreek is a clover-shaped plant whose leaves are commonly used as an herb and also in curries. The seeds are often sold dried and if they are contaminated with E coli, then the bacteria can survive for years. In Germany, the fenugreek seeds were sold in mixed spice packages with lentil seeds.

However, in Britain the company had been planning to sell them as seeds for planting rather than for consumption. So far, the strain has killed 51 people - 49 deaths in Germany and one each in Sweden and the US.

More than 4,000 people in Germany have fallen sick since the outbreak was detected in May, including 851 who have developed a serious complication that can lead to kidney failure. The same bacteria was also responsible for a much smaller outbreak in France last month.

Scientists said it was possible only a small part of the lot of Egyptian fenugreek seeds were infected, which might explain why there were not more cases given how widely they were sold. "You could have some seeds contaminated but not necessarily the whole batch," said Ian Henderson, a professor of microbial biology at the University of Birmingham.

He said it would be difficult to find the culprit bacteria as large quantities only appear once the sprouts begin to grow. "It could be like searching for a needle in a haystack," he said.

Yesterday the UK's Food Standards Agency said that sprouted seeds should only be eaten if they have been cooked thoroughly until steaming hot throughout; they should not be eaten raw.