Spanish organic cucumbers....

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Anyone else feeling less than confident about the organic cucumber from Spain sitting in their fridge following this story about v nasty e-coli problems in Germany and Czech Rep?

Sorry, I'll try that link again here

franke - the advice is to avoid all raw vegetables and i'm sticking with that (despite normally haveing saldas every day). They still arent 100% sure where the contamination came from and better safe than sorry in my opinion.

But all cooked veg ok so crack on with the ratatouille.

It will be interesting to hear how this 'bug' actually got inside the cucumber as we don't usually associate e.coli with fruit and veg.

fifi as far as I am aware, one big fruit growing plant (can't really call it farm) is next to a sewage treatment area which is prone to flooding. this way contaminated water gets into the water that is used to water the plants. cucumber and tomatoes are 90+ percent water, whilst growing the just "suck up" (for want of a better word) the contaminated water, which then leads to the "bugs" beeing inside the fruit as well as outside.
I am feeling queazy just thinking about it...

Yes mousymouse, that sounds about right although it's hard to imagine!! I suppose it's similar to mussels in dirty seawater

Yuck! What a horrible thought Mousy! I wonder if melons are affected too (put some in dd's lunch box this morning!)

None of this is making sense to me though. The German health expert dealing with the crisis said on Radio 4 news today that the problem is definitely confined to N. Germany. There are 20 people in the rest of Europe affected, but they originally contracted the illness in Germany.

Surely Spanish organic cucumbers must be distributed to other places too? You would think that they would be bought in Spain for example. I wonder if it is the storage/transportation that's the problem ie wrongly stored in warehouse next to chicken or meat or transported in a truck that had animal faeces in it or something? Pure speculation but it doesn't add up.

it doesnt make sense to me either still and i'm in germany. I cant imagine that just one supplier was supplying cucumbers only to the one part of North Germany where the outbreak started.

Until there is a definite answer as to the source of the outbreak then i'm going to play on the side of caution.

Same here Canella from now on - that makes huge sense

Produce supplies are very concentrated and retailers are also very concentrated in Western Europe. The supply of organic cucumbers out of Spain might easily be limited to just three or four big producers and a large retailer like Aldi or Rewe will buy from just one producer to get the best volume discount. There is almost no market in Spain for organic or 'bio' produce... so it is not consumed in Spain.

The types of fertiliser that can be used in organic production tend to be of the 'natural compost' variety i.e. treated shit. If the base material hasn't been sterilised properly that can cause problems.

Ahhhhh.... that explains quite a bit ... thank you Cogito

just seen on a german news site, that they analysed the spanish cucumbers but the E-coli strain does not match the one from the outbreak. so they have to keep searching.
sorry article in german language

I have been reading up on this a bit today as I blogged about it.

Cognito
I read (in the Bild Zeitung) that the Spanish "farm" sent 50% of their goods to Northern Germany, which would fit in with your theory. But what about the other 50%? Surely we would be seeing a second outbreak somewhere else, if that is true?

We have a real organic farmer with fields behind our house. I shall be ordering a veg box from him.

aha. Mousymouse. Read your link now.

Can someone help us non-German speakers and give us the most important points of the article?

I've just read the same thing on the ORF (Austrian) website, mousymouse - it says they'll have to start the search again from scratch.

The Spaniards had apparently been denying that the infections came from Spain and claimed that this was proved by the fact that the only two Spaniards to have been affected were infected in Germany.

Two cucumbers have been analysed and found not to have the same strain of E Coli bacteria that causes the outbreak in Germany. Two other cucumbers are still being analysed.

There is still no way of knowing where the infection came from.

Three of the infected cucumbers found in the Hamburg wholesale market are from Spain, one is from Holland.

In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern there have been traces of E Coli on cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce.

The rest is about the cases of infections etc within and outwith Germany.

That just makes the situation more worrying. Definitely giving salad a miss till its sorted

"Surely we would be seeing a second outbreak somewhere else, if that is true?"

Not necessarily. If it's a big producer, you could easily find that the production from one particular growing area/glasshouse is contaminated and the rest is perfectly OK. Reputable producers will operate a process of 'due diligence' and be able to track back via barcode data where & when a particular batch was picked/packed. If the contamination is happening elsewhere in the chain then they'll have to look at packhouses, chillers, transport and storage points for clues.

Is it exclusively organic food that is affected still?

Thanks MmeLindor for the translation.

I think this is even more worrying. You can't just say "Well, I'll avoid Spanish cucumbers" if they don't actually know where it is from.

Interesting. I bought some spanish cucumbers last week and they were rotten within 24 hours, went really soggy. I thought the fridge was turned up too high and they had frozen or something - threw them away uneaten - two of them. Was really miffed.

Am not so miffed now. Lawks!

Mind you, if you are looking to lose weight by eating salad perhaps this is one way albeit not a smart one.

Gosh, WMMC. Lucky escape, perhaps.

Think I will stick with Weightwatchers for the weight loss plan.

I struggled to shop today. Ocado do ot list the country of origin for their salad and vegetables on their website. It was visible in some o the pictures, but not in others. I am trying to stick with UK produce and it has not been easy.

Here is what I found today if it helps anyone else. My local little sainsburys had carrots from Scotland. Whereas the ones I usually buy from waitrose (organic) are from Spain. All peppers seem to be from Spain. Organic waitrose cucumber are British as are their organic mushrooms. Organic waitrose celery is British. Baby spinach bags are from the UK but all other mixed bags of salad are from multiple countries and they don't specify where. Little gem lettuces from wait rose are British.

It's a real minefield!

Oh, and I called Abel and Cole thinking their stuff would be British but most is coming from Italy at the moment.

Just when I had embarked on a new regime of chopped up cucumber in yoghurt as meal replacement, and so bought several on Friday. Just checked, they are from Spain, but are not organic.. I've had three over the weekend, not sure whether to bin them now or chance it. Will also be reporting back...

Well, the Spanish connection has been disproven now anyway.

Although, the Spanish cucumbers did test positive for E Coli, just not the strain that caused the dangerous outbreak. Presumably there are different strains that are more or less dangerous? Anyone know?

"The Spanish cucumbers did test positive for E Coli" - What? Even if it is not the specific strain surely there shouldn't be anything on a cucumber like this - any form of E Coli has got to be dangerous hasn't it?? How can it be acceptable for veg to have E Coli on it?? Am horrified!!