On June 24, 2011, the Regional Health Authority of Aquitaine confirmed that eight people from the Bordeaux area of France had been hospitalised because of Escherichia coli (E coli). French authorities are pointing the finger of infectious blame at bean sprouts grown using fenugreek, mustard and rocket seeds produced by British seed manufacturer Thompson and Morgan which had been sprinkled on soup.
Bordeaux E coli Outbreak Blamed on Bean Sprout Gazpacho Garnish
At the end of June 2011, reports emerged from France that eight people had been hospitalised after suffering from the same strain of E coli implicated in the German “bloody diarrhoea” outbreak of May and June 2011 which killed around 40 people and caused several thousand more people to become acutely ill.
Investigations by French health authorities show that seven of the eight victims of the Bordeaux E coli outbreak had attended a fair held at a children’s early learning centre in Bègles, a suburb of Bordeaux, on June 8, 2011, and six of them had eaten Gazpacho soup which had been garnished with bean sprouts especially grown for that purpose, as an educational exercise, by children attending the centre.
The bean sprouts had been germinated from fenugreek, mustard and rocket seeds manufactured by an Ipswich, Suffolk, based company, Thompson and Morgan and French shopkeepers were advised by their country’s health authority to withdraw all stocks of them from sale. However, as of midday on Saturday June 25, 2011 no formal European food alert advising withdrawal of the seeds was showing on the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed portal.
Thompson & Morgan Says Hygiene not Seeds to Blame for E coli
Speaking on BBC Radio Solent’s midday news, on June 25, Paul Hansord, Managing Director of Thompson & Morgan, rigorously defended the company’s products by saying that the cause of the infection was more likely to be related to poor hygiene practices than contaminated seeds from its factory. The company also revealed that the particular seeds used in the French outbreak had been bought in bulk from Italy rather than directly from British outlets.
Fortunately, sprouting seeds for raw garnishes are just a very small part of Thompson & Morgan’s extensive catalogue as the company also sells flower seeds and bulbs and many other varieties of non-edible garden plants and trees. Consequently, it is less likely to suffer as badly from the adverse publicity as the Spanish farmers did over the E coli cucumber crisis earlier in the month.
Elaine Findlay - An expert cook, Findlay's passion for food is evidenced by the size of her kitchen and her library of old recipe books
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