Via Expatica.com: Egypt denies its seeds caused E.coli outbreak. Excerpt:
Egypt's ministry of agriculture on Friday denied that fenugreek seeds exported to Europe had caused an E.coli outbreak that has killed 50 people, mainly in Germany.
The head of Egypt's Central Administration of Agricultural Quarantine, Ali Suleiman, said claims by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that Egyptian fenugreek seeds exported in 2009 and 2010 may have been implicated in the outbreak were "completely untrue."
"The presence of this bacteria in Egypt has not been proven at all, and it has not been recorded," Suleiman told the official MENA news agency.
He said the Egyptian company that exported the seeds in 2009 has stressed in a letter that it had exported the fenugreek to Holland and not to Germany, Britain or France.
On Wednesday, the EFSA said a "rapid risk assessment" it conducted with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), had shown the Egyptian seeds could have been to blame.
