UK supermarkets moved to shrug off fears over imported cucumbers following the outbreak of E. coli that has killed 16 people so far.
Asda and The Co-operative were among those quick to distance themselves from fears that the product could be potentially harmful.
The first victim outside Germany - a woman in her 50s in Sweden - to be killed after the outbreak, died today but so far there have been no cases involving people who had not recently visited the German city of Hamburg. At least 467 cases of intestinal infection have so far been recorded.
A spokesperson for The Co-operative Group said: "All The Co-operative's fresh conventionally grown cucumbers are British, whilst our organic cucumbers are currently sourced from Holland.
"Spanish-grown cucumbers are used in some of our sandwiches. The grower is accredited to a recognised international quality scheme, and has been visited by our supplier who, as part of their routine quality monitoring, regularly test for the presence of E. coli. No positive results have been highlighted.
"As a responsible retailer, The Co-operative is keeping this developing situation under review and will continue to act in the best interests of our customers."
Asda continues to sell Spanish cucumbers and will continue to do so until its planned switchover on Thursday, a spokesperson told freshinfo.
“We are very confident of our Spanish suppliers. It is the tail end of the season and we will be moving to 70 per cent British and 30 per cent Dutch so the switch is unrelated.
“The outbreak has so far only been restricted to cucumbers in Germany so I think people are relatively calm about it,” he said.
Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer are only selling UK grown produce at present.
Derek Hargreaves, technical manager at the Cucumber Growers Association, said there is likely to be a flood of product on the market as German companies have been cancelling orders from The Netherlands.
Prices have dropped from €0.20 to €0.05-€0.07 a stick for Dutch cucumbers which could flood the wholesale market, according to Hargreaves.
He said: “It is impossible to get E. Coli into a whole cucumbers but you can get it on to it. My speculation is that it would have been during preparation in Germany.”
European Commissioner Dali is expected to provide a statement regarding the E. coli outbreak within the next 24 hours. The commission is providing updates and background information on its website at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/coli_outbreak_germany_en.htm
The source of the outbreak is as yet unknown and it is not confirmed whether the EHEC strains on the incriminated cucumbers from Spain match the strains found in infected patients.
The two Spanish companies named in the E.coli cucumber alert have claimed that the contamination is unlikely to have taken place on Spanish soil, insisting all tests carried out to date have shown no trace of the bacteria.
Málaga-based Frunet Bio and cooperative group Costa de Almería, which has its headquarters in Roquetas del Mar, Almería, have told Fruitnet.com of their belief that the contamination with E.coli happened on arrival in Germany or during transportation.
Both companies said they were fully cooperating with the Spanish authorities in addition to carrying out their own investigations, but revealed that no contamination had been detected in the soil, water, pallets or packhouses used by their allied growers.
Precautionary measures have been undertaken by Germany, other EU member states and Russia. Several Member States are pressing for action from the European Commission to support the fruit and vegetable sector while Spanish authorities have hit back at the reports which it claims has damaged its reputation.
Current estimates put losses at €150m and 230,000 tonnes of produce. The last major scare of this nature happened in 2006 when infected spinach in the US cost the industry around $150 million.
The Food Standards Agency has said that investigations in Germany and Spain are ongoing and that there is no indication of contaminated product in the UK.
No comments yet