SPAIN: Authorities says it is still not clear whether Spanish cucumbers are to blame for Germany's E. coli outbreak

Record ID: 1526372

  • Title: SPAIN: Authorities says it is still not clear whether Spanish cucumbers are to blame for Germany's E. coli outbreak
  • Date: 28th May 2011
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (MAY 27, 2011) (REUTERS) CUSTOMER AT GREEN GROCERS VEGETABLE ON DISPLAY AND CUCUMBERS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MONTSE CORTI�����AS, DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNION OF SMALL FARMERS AND RANCHERS (UPA), SAYING: "The alert was activated many hours after the statements by the (German) senator so clearly Germany has skipped out on the protocol in place to initiate health alerts. That is very important and very grave, not only because of the repercussions it can have on the (agricultural) sectors but because the statements by the German senator have been of no use except to generate alarm." CORTI�����AS AND REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MONTSE CORTI�����AS, DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNION OF SMALL FARMERS AND RANCHERS (UPA), SAYING: "We are in a cautious period. The next step is the investigation taking place and everything indicates the contamination did not happen at the point of origin but we are the most interested in finding out and for that tests are being carried out which will take about 24 to 48 hours. Until then we only want the health authorities to speak as they are the only ones that can qualify that the products have no problem." CUSTOMERS AT GREEN GROCERS VEGETABLES CUCUMBERS
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2011 21:52
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UQUKU3NYP03UIGPVGLFRNR1L
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Cucumbers imported from Spain may be the source of an E. coli outbreak that Germany says has killed four people and affected at least 200 more, European health officials said on Friday (May 27).
    The European Commission's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed said two companies from southern Spain - Hortofruticola and Pepino Bio Frunet - may be implicated and that any product that may have been in contact with the infected batch had been removed, Spain's Health Ministry said.
    However, the Ministry said it was important to determine when the contamination took place.
    "While the cucumbers were produced in Spain, an investigation must find out at what stage of the production chain the contamination occurred," the Spanish Health Ministry said in statement.
    The Ministry of Environment and Agriculture said that it was too early to say whether contamination had actually taken place in the company or companies of the cucumbers' origin.
    Farmers in Spain echoed the ministry's call for caution and said Germany was too quick to proportion blame.
    "We think they have been hasty because we know there are products that are not only from Spain, from Almeria and Malaga but we are also being told that of the four tests carried out, one of the samples has its origin in Holland. So, we think they have been hasty. We think they should have determined the real problem, found the source, and then said when and where it happened," said Fulgencio Torres of Hortyfruta, an organisation representing producers and traders of fruits and vegetables in southern Spain.
    Montse Corti����as accused German Senator Cornelia Prufer-Storcks, who said on Wednesday (May 25) Spanish cucumbers were the source of contamination, of being unhelpful and sparking alarm.
    "The alert was activated many hours after the statements by the (German) senator so clearly Germany has skipped out on the protocol in place to initiate health alerts. That is very important and very grave, not only because of the repercussions it can have on the (agricultural) sectors but because the statements by the German senator have been of no use except to generate alarm," the deputy secretary general of the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers said.
    "The next step is the investigation taking place and everything indicates the contamination did not happen at the point of origin but we are the most interested in finding out and for that tests are being carried out which will take about 24 to 48 hours. Until then we only want the health authorities to speak as they are the only ones that can qualify that the products have no problem," Corti����as added.
    Spanish consumers should not adjust eating habits as no case of the infection has been reported in Spain, the Spanish Health Ministry said.
    Germany imports about 182,000 tonnes of cucumbers a year from Spain, accounting for 40 percent of its total cucumber imports, according to German figures from 2008, the most recent available.
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