German Food Safety Officials Relax Warnings About EHEC Outbreak

The Robert Koch Institutes and the German government have rescinded earlier recommendations that people in the northern areas of Germany refrain from eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce because of the outbreak of the rare O104:H4 strain of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). They  concluded that tainted bean sprouts grown on an organic farm in Northern Germany were the probable source of the deadly bacteria.They recommended  that, in addition to practicing good hygiene, people should not eat raw sprouts and should dispose of any sprouts in stock along with any food items that might have come in contact with the sprouts. The new advisory is the result of a continually declining number of hospital emergency room admissions related to the EHEC outbreak.