The Spanish agency for food safety and nutrition has confirmed that the regional government of Andalusia is working with the two Spanish growers, one in Almería and one in Málaga, that have been named in connection with an E.coli outbreak in Germany linked to contaminated cucumbers.
As reported by Fruitnet, three organic cucumbers from two growers in Spain have been identified by the European Commission as the probable source of an outbreak of the bacteria Escherichia coli, which has reportedly caused the death of at least three people in northern Germany over the past week.
In a statement, the government agency said the Andalusian authorities had begun work with the affected companies with the objective of advancing the investigation into the source of the outbreak.
As a first precautionary step, it said the Andalusian government had “adopted the appropriate measures” to ensure that any products sold did not coincide with the implicated shipments.
However, although the agency recognised that a link had been made between the E.coli cases and the contaminated cucumbers, it had yet to be identified whether the outbreak had originated during the handling process for the product.
With no associated case of the bacteria reported in Spain itself, the government body said that Spanish consumers were safe to continue eating cucumbers as normal, although it added that they should take the “normal precautions” of washing and peeling the products.
‘German irresponsibility’
However, the regional government of Andalusia issued a substantially stronger response to the linking of the outbreak to Spanish products, claiming that the German authorities had sounded the alarm without knowing for certain whether the problem originated at origin or final destination.
Andalusian minister of agriculture, Clara Aguilera, accused Germany in a statement of acting “irresponsibly” and causing an “unjustified alarm” by issuing a Europe-wide alert, which affected Spanish producers in a direct manner.
During a visit to Málaga, Aguilera slammed the “irresponsible attitude” of the German authorities, who she claimed had acted “without irrefutable confirmation or verification” of the information in a “precipitative and unfortunate manner”.
The minister said one of the Andalusian companies identified by the alert had already carried out “exhaustive checks of its cucumber shipments” that had found them to be completely clear of any form of contamination.
Despite this, Aguilera said the company had opted for the complete stoppage of its shipments as a preventative measure.
In regards to the other producer involved, which is understood to be located in Roquetas del Mar in the province of Almería, the minister said the company was experiencing difficulties identifying the precise shipments involved because the data provided by Germany did not agree with the firm’s shipments registry.
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