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Why E. coli and Salmonella Love Sprouts
Home » Health » Why E. coli and Salmonella Love Sprouts
By Sean Duffy | No CommentsLeave a Comment
Last updated: Friday, June 10, 2011

Sprouts have now officially been pegged as the cause of the European E. coli outbreak. We wondered how often the stringy little guys, a symbol of the health-food movement, are involved with food-borne illness. As you can see from this up-to-date record of sprouts-associated outbreaks , they’ve been a lodging place for pathogens including the dangerous E. coli O157:H7 (different from the O104:H4 strain implicated in the current outbreak), but mostly various strains of salmonella. A recent report from the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute ranked the pathogen-food combinations most threatening to public health according to their short- and long-term costs and the pain and suffering they cause. It put salmonella in all forms of produce at #8. And sprouts were the second-largest produce vehicle, the researchers said, making up 16.8% of produce-related outbreaks. (Tomatoes were first, with 21.2%.) Produce-related outbreaks of food-borne diseases have

become increasingly common . And sprouts have been flagged as particularly troublesome. They grow in warm and humid environments — as do bacteria. And a contaminated seed can give rise to sprouts loaded with dangerous internal bacteria that can’t be washed off. Growers have used different methods, including chlorinating and irradiating seeds, though nothing has completely solved the problem. Meantime, the government advises sprouts be thoroughly cooked to kill offending bacteria. (We see how that works with bean sprouts, but does anyone actually cook alfalfa sprouts?) And the government says pregnant women, small kids, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems should avoid raw sprouts of all kinds. That may require asking a restaurant or deli to leave them out, since they’re so often added for some stealth crunch. Image: iStockphoto

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Why E. coli and Salmonella Love Sprouts

By Dr Dreams | No CommentsLeave a Comment
Last updated: Friday, June 10, 2011

Sprouts have now officially been pegged as the cause of the European E. coli outbreak. We wondered how often the stringy little guys, a symbol of the health-food movement, are involved with food-borne illness. As you can see from this up-to-date record of sprouts-associated outbreaks , they’ve been a lodging place for pathogens including the dangerous E. coli O157:H7 (different from the O104:H4 strain implicated in the current outbreak), but mostly various strains of salmonella. A recent report from the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute ranked the pathogen-food combinations most threatening to public health according to their short- and long-term costs and the pain and suffering they cause. It put salmonella in all forms of produce at #8. And sprouts were the second-largest produce vehicle, the researchers said, making up 16.8% of produce-related outbreaks. (Tomatoes were first, with 21.2%.) Produce-related outbreaks of food-borne diseases

have become increasingly common . And sprouts have been flagged as particularly troublesome. They grow in warm and humid environments — as do bacteria. And a contaminated seed can give rise to sprouts loaded with dangerous internal bacteria that can’t be washed off. Growers have used different methods, including chlorinating and irradiating seeds, though nothing has completely solved the problem. Meantime, the government advises sprouts be thoroughly cooked to kill offending bacteria. (We see how that works with bean sprouts, but does anyone actually cook alfalfa sprouts?) And the government says pregnant women, small kids, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems should avoid raw sprouts of all kinds. That may require asking a restaurant or deli to leave them out, since they’re so often added for some stealth crunch. Image: iStockphoto

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Why E. coli and Salmonella Love Sprouts

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