Six people have so far died in Germany and thousands have become ill in four European countries following an E Coli outbreak, the source of the infection thought to be organic cucumbers from Málaga and Almeria.
Exports from the two provinces have been halted while the health authorities carry out inspections and a full investigation. So far, however, all tests on produce from the two production centres have proven negative.
Although the German authorities were quick to blame the Spanish cucumbers for the outbreak, there have been no reported cases of E Coli in Spain and the EU has admitted that the infection could have been caused during transportation or during storage and distribution in Germany.
Travellers to Germany are also being advised to avoid eating raw tomatoes and lettuce. One company implicated in the outbreak stated that they sent just one pallet of 900 kilos of cucumbers to Germany and it arrived in Hamburg on May 15th. The first reported E Coli case was on May 14th.
The Spanish Government has described the European health alert instigated by Germany as ‘irresponsible and precipitous’ given the paucity of data and evidence currently available.