Trip Tip a Day

A report issued two days ago links the French and German E. coli (STEC) 0104:H4 outbreaks to fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt. The trace of the seeds from Egypt to container ship to distribution at garden centers is fascinating.  For a full read, see the link below. "The comparison of the back tracing information from the French and German outbreaks leads to the conclusion that lot # 48088 of fenugreek seeds imported by the Importer, from Egypt, is the most likely common link, although it cannot be excluded that other lots may be implicated. Given the possible severe health impact of exposure to a small quantity of contaminated material, and, in the absence of information regarding the source and means of contamination and possible cross-contamination, it seems appropriate to consider all lots of fenugreek from the identified exporter as suspect. In this regard, the thus far negative test results from the microbiological tests carried out on seeds cannot be interpreted as proof...

The Robert Koch Institute explains how they nailed the sprouts.. http://www.rki.de/cln_169/nn_217400/EN/Home/PM082011.html Recipe-based restaurant cohort study (italics and bolding added) "With a high probability, the results of the „recipe-based restaurant cohort study” finally permit narrowing down the source of the infection to the consumption of sprouts. It was possible to apply this methodological approach only after a sufficient number of restaurant customers could be identified to ensure adequate statistical power of this analysis. To ascertain the consumption of raw fruit and vegetables by patients and controls more objectively and less dependently on memory, RKI used the following approach in the “recipe-based restaurant cohort study”: Five groups (travel groups, clubs, etc) that comprised a total of 112 participants and included 19 individuals who acquired EHEC infection were questioned regarding the foods they consumed after eating in a common restaurant. Additionall...

Foodography.  I love to whip out the IPHONE for a picture of a beautifully prepared dish, to document a fun new restaurant, or the food on a trip to an exotic land.  Here is a photo I took last weekend at work.  Jessie, our superb baker and co-worker treated us to her homemade fruit tart - a feast for the eyes and so delicious.   Well, photos of the dishes from a restaurant in Germany helped nail the sprouts as the culprit in the E. coli 0104 outbreak, as they were present on the sick diner's plates.   "Today, German officials announced that they are now certain that organic bean sprouts are the source of the epidemic of enterohemorrhagic  Escherichia coli  (EHEC) in their country—and diners who took out their cameras before digging in have proven to be a big help." You can enlarge the photo and see the sprouts if you go to the link below: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/06/restaurant-photos-help-nail-bean.html?ref=ra

"EHEC outbreak: BfR confirms contamination of sprouts with O104:H4  11.06.2011 Who confirmed?   The  National Reference Laboratory for   Escherichia coli   at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). Their mission:  "Identify risks - Protect health" - this is the guiding principle for the work of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment ( BfR ) in the field of consumer health protection. What is the news (and it's big)?  "Strain from the sprouts is identical to strain from the infected   patients" Further reading : "Scientists of the National Reference Laboratory for  Escherichia coli  at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) have confirmed the results of the  Land  authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia: Raw sprouts contaminated with EHEC, which originated from the household of EHEC patients in North Rhine-Westphalia, were contaminated with the EHEC strain O104:H4." For the microbiologists: " I...

Breakthrough?  Sprouts have been in, then out, now in again as the possible source for the E. coli outbreak in Europe.  4 Interesting snippets in the news today: Glossary - EHEC - Enterohemorrhagic E. coli                STEC - Shiga toxin producing E. coli                Spiegel Online and WHO call it EHEC, the CDC is calling it STEC.                  HUS - Hemolytic uremic syndrome (involves the kidney failure)                 1)  Scientists 'Find EHEC Bacteria at Sprout Farm' from Spiegel International Online: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,767935,00.html    6/10/2011 "Health authorities in Germany have finally been able to show that the pathogens which caused the deadly EHEC outbreak came from sprouts at an organic farm in the Uelzen district. According to SPI...