A leading New Zealand food microbiologist is warning that New Zealand is not immune to the lethal outbreak of E.Coli that has killed more than 40 people, and made thousands sick in Europe.
AUT professor of microbiology John Brooks says the continuing outbreak of the new and deadly strain of E.Coli, which apparently emerged from a German bean sprout farm, is a wake-up call for food producers everywhere.
“Well I think they have got to be very careful with the way they grow and handle food.
“If you’re using a sprouting system you have to make sure it is operated correctly, and it certainly appears that the German farm did operate their sprouting system correctly – but it could have come in with the seeds.”
Speaking from a conference in Rotorua, Professor Brooks told Country99TV that to ensure the safety of our food we must introduce controlled lethal steps during processing such as heating or irradiation – particularly with high risk exports such as sprouts.
He says increased microbiological testing only gives a retrospective view and does not ensure the safety of food.
“Well this sort of thing has happened before. E.Coli has developed the ability to produce these toxins before. And this is a new one, it was a previously known organism that rarely produced serious disease.
“But it has developed this ability to produce this toxin so in a sense that is evolution and I’m sure we’re going to see other organisms do the same thing.”
Because E.Coli is a pathogen that lives in the guts of animals Professor Brooks says the E.Coli breakout in Europe was likely the result of fecal contamination.
“The only way it can get in I think is via faecal contamination. So either the water that they used for watering these sprouts was contaminated with faeces or perhaps a handler who had the disease handled these sprouts and it got spread that way.”
While New Zealand producers do not need to panic, he says they need to take extreme care during production and handling, to ensure no cross contamination between animals and vegetables.
