Following the news that Belgium and Russia have halted imports of Spanish cucumbers in the wake of the E.coli outbreak in Germany, the debate over whether French authorities should do likewise has been raging in France.
Angélique Delahaye, president of the French vegetables federation, believes they should.
'If there is any doubt about the contamination of cucumbers from Spain, we must halt imports of these products,' she said on RMC.fr. 'With French production, there aren't the same regulatory conditions. This is a demonstration that if you want to pay less, you end up putting the life of consumers in danger.'
David Patte, of the national union of fruit and vegetables importers and exporters at the international market in Perpignan, disagrees.
'No, I don't think we have to suspend vegetable imports,' he stated. 'It should be known that we have a quality process that was put in place 10 years ago, whereby every lot that arrives on the site is controlled. If we detect an anomaly, we stop the lot and if any additional non-conformity is detected, we stop the sale of the product. We cannot sell anything that may harm the consumer.'
