Would You Believe “Beansprouts”?
Update: “Nevermind”. The Germans really are out to destroy European agriculture by identifying sources before the testing is done. People are going to be on bread and water before this is over.
The BBC reports on the latest suspect in the German E. coli outbreak: German beansprouts ‘probable’ cause
Beansprouts grown in northern Germany are suspected to be the source of an E. coli outbreak that has left 22 people dead, local officials say.
The agriculture minister for Lower Saxony, Gert Lindemann, said there was a clear trail of evidence pointing to a plant nursery south of Hamburg.
The nursery has been closed, though officials say the outbreak’s source cannot yet be definitively confirmed.
Germans are being advised to stop eating the beansprouts.
The BBC’s Stephen Evans in Berlin says the announcement may cause embarrassment to German authorities, who had earlier pointed to Spanish farms as the source of the outbreak.
Well, I always knew beansprouts were evil, so I wouldn’t be surprised, but it demonstrates how nasty this form of E. coli is, because a salad isn’t exactly overwhelmed by the number of bean sprouts that are added. This was from a local nursery, not even a farm, which explains why everything was so concentrated. It is unlikely that it produced enough to sell beyond Hamburg.
I think it would be time for the owners to consider a shift to solar power generation, as they are unlikely to remain viable in food production.
2 comments
“… because a salad isn’t exactly overwhelmed by the number of bean sprouts that are added.”
I don’t know. Some of the salads I’ve occasionally been subjected to…
In younger days I dutifully tried to cultivate a taste for bean sprouts: after all, am I not a “sprout-eater”? But that fondness just didn’t take. Sprouts are bland when they are fresh, and a positive horror when they spoil in the fridge. Why bother?
I am glad they discovered the source of the E. coli. But it just proves what I already knew: eating sprouts is its own punishment.
See the update, Steve – the Germans had to stage another Emily Litella press conference.
The guy who runs the nursery is really POed. He’s a vegen and organic farmer. He points out that he doesn’t use animal-based fertilizers, and the sprouts are just stuck in the ground and watered, so there is no way for them to be contaminated.
He is wrong, of course, the water could be contaminated without his knowing anything about it, but I doubt it because most dairy farms in Germany are grass based, and the E. coli needs the grain feeding to get bad. Digesting grass produces acids that destroy most of the worst forms of E. coli inside the cows.
I’m putting my bet on a distributor and cross contamination. They should be checking the delivery trucks and warehouses.