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British seed firm 'linked to French E. coli outbreak'

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said no E.coli cases had been reported in the UK. In a statement, Thompson and Morgan said it sold "thousands of packets and have had no reported problems".

"It is highly unlikely to be the seeds themselves but the way that they were used and handled," the statement added.

Paul Hansord, the managing director of the company added: "We make sure that everything we do is to a high standard."

He added that the firm buys its seeds in bulk from suppliers around the world and the affected seeds may have been sourced from Italy.

Thompson and Morgan also said that they do not raise any seeds, instead selling packets via mail order to gardeners.

An FSA spokesman said: "We have been in contact with the French authorities about this outbreak and are aware that a UK business has been named in connection with it.

"No cases of food poisoning have been reported in the UK linked with the outbreak in France but we are in close contact with the Health Protection Agency.

"We have asked for further information from the French authorities with regard to the three named type of seeds to help us carry out investigations in the UK.

Seeds blamed for Europe E. coli still on sale | The Associated ...

Egyptian sprout seeds blamed for a massive and deadly E. coli outbreak are still on the market and were shipped to more European countries than was previously believed, officials said Tuesday, as the EU announced a ban on further imports.

The European Food Safety Authority confirmed in a report that one lot of contaminated fenugreek seeds from Egypt was probably the source of the recent food poisoning outbreaks in Germany and France. But the number of European countries that received parts of the suspected lot is "much larger than previously known," and includes Austria, Britain and Spain, it said.

The European Union said in a statement it was banning the import of Egyptian fenugreek seeds until Oct. 31, adding that its members must destroy all seeds from "one Egyptian exporter" received between 2009 and 2011. Officials have not released the name of the exporter.

The move, however, may be largely symbolic, since tainted seeds have already been widely distributed in Europe and it's unclear officials will be able to identify them because the amount of bacteria may be too small to detect.

Fenugreek seeds from the suspect Egyptian lot — about 15,000 kilograms — were imported to one large German distributor, the agency said. Those seeds were then sold to 70 different companies, 54 of them in Germany, the center of the outbreak, and to 16 companies in 11 other European countries.

Fenugreek is a clover-shaped plant whose leaves are commonly used as an herb and also in Indian curries. The seeds are often sold dried, and if they are contaminated with E. coli, the bacteria can survive for years.

Tracing exactly where the seeds from the suspected lot were sold could take weeks, food safety officials said. In Germany, the fenugreek seeds were sold in mixed spice packages with lentil seeds.

European food safety officials could not rule out that other lots of seeds from the same exporter weren't also tainted. Last year, Europe imported about 49,000 tons of fenugreek seeds from Egypt, worth more than €56 million ($81 million)

Officials previously believed that sales had centered primarily on Germany and France but until now had little detailed information on where the seeds were shipped.

So far, the strain has killed 51 people, including 49 deaths in Germany and one each in Sweden and the U.S.

More than 4,000 people in Germany have fallen sick since the outbreak was detected in May, including 851 who have developed a serious complication that can lead to kidney failure. The same bacteria was also responsible for a much smaller outbreak in France last month.

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