Germany confirms E.coli source

Germany's public health body the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment have told a press conference that beansprouts have been officially confirmed as the cause of the recent E.coli outbreak in the north of the country.

Announcing the news, RKI president Reinhard Burger said the institute had also withdrawn its advice to consumers to avoid eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.

While concrete evidence of a link between beansprouts and the E.coli contamination remained to be found, Burger said an assumption that the outbreak began at the Gärtnerhof Bienenbüttel in ülzen, Lower Saxony, had been further strengthened by new links to other cases of infection.