CONSUMERS SHOULD not eat raw bean sprouts “as a precautionary measure”, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has advised in the wake of an E.coli outbreak in France.
The authority stressed that no cases of the Verotoxigenic E.coli strain have been found in Ireland.
“However, until further information is available, as a precautionary measure the FSAI is advising Irish consumers not to eat raw bean sprouts,” the authority’s chief executive Prof Alan Reilly said in a statement.
There are eight reported cases in Bordeaux, France of the E.coli variant. Most of those individuals ate bean sprouts or sprouted seeds. The microbe causing the outbreak in France is the same as the one in Germany which resulted in at least 39 deaths and French authorities believe that “bean sprouts are the most likely cause of the outbreak there”.
Prof Reilly said the sprouts were unlikely to have originated in Germany because the farm implicated in that outbreak was closed and did not export its bean sprouts.
He said French authorities were carrying out a full investigation including traceback and microbiological examination of suspect foodstuffs.
“Until we identify the precise source of this outbreak, we are advising Irish consumers not to eat raw or uncooked bean sprouts and we are advising caterers not to serve raw bean sprouts,” Prof Reilly said. “Despite extensive investigation across Germany the exact type or origin of contaminated beans/seeds has not yet been identified.”