‘Wash all fruit and veg’ call as toll from new food bug rises

Experts have urged people to wash all fruit and vegetables after a “super-toxic” strain of E.coli never seen before affected hundreds of people across Europe.

The outbreak has centred on Germany but officials said yesterday that seven people from the UK have been infected, all of whom had recently travelled to Germany. Three are British and four are German nationals.

Early investigations suggest the strain is a mutant form of two different E.coli bacteria.

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The strain is now said to have killed at least 16 people, 15 from Germany and one from Sweden. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed more than 1,600 cases in 10 different countries.

The Government’s food watchdog yesterday advised consumers that there was no evidence to suggest that food from the affected areas in Europe was being sold in British stores.

However a Food Standards Agency spokesman advised the public to wash all fruit and vegetables before eating them. The Health Protection Agency recommended that people travelling to Germany to avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salad including lettuce, especially in the north of the country.

Anyone returning from Germany with an illness, including bloody diarrhoea, is also urged to seek medical attention.

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The exact cause of the outbreak still remains unclear after the original theory that it had spread through Spanish cucumbers was ruled out. Russia has already acted to ban all imports of vegetables from the European Union – a move described as disproportionate by EU officials.

Scientists are working round the clock to identify the strain which contains several genes resistant to antibiotics.

Retailers meanwhile were keen to stress that food on sale on British supermarkets was safe.

A spokeswoman for British Retail Consortium said: “There is absolutely no evidence that produce linked to this area has come into the UK.

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“Retailers have very thorough traceability systems and people can be confident about where the food they are buying comes from.”

Anecdotal evidence from retailers thus far suggests that there has been no fall in sales of fresh fruit and vegetables since the outbreak began over the weekend.

While retailers do import vegetables from Spain and Germany, the Yorkshire Post understands that the region the outbreak is being traced to is not among the areas that supply UK supermarkets.

Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the WHO, said the new strain has “various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing” and it had never been isolated from patients before.

It is not uncommon for bacteria to continually evolve and swap genes but the new strain appears to be more virulent than other strains of E.coli.