International Specialty Supply
Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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International Specialty Supply Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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820 East 20th Street Cookeville, TN 38501 USA 931 526 1106
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Sprouts Infected Thousands in Late 1990s
Raw sprouts can be hazardous to your health, investigators warn. Sprouts from
contaminated alfalfa and clover seeds were responsible for a series of outbreaks
of gastrointestinal illness and urinary tract infections in the late 1990s,
according to researchers at the California Department of Health and the Centers
of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. “As
currently produced, sprouts can be a hazardous food. Seeds can be contaminated
before sprouting, and no method can eliminate all (disease-causing organisms)
from seeds,'' Dr. Janet C. Mohle-Boetani of the Division of Communicable Disease
Control in Berkeley, California, and colleagues report in the August 21st issue
of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The
research team recommends that seed and sprout growers make efforts to reduce
contamination, and that people with weak immune systems avoid sprouts
altogether. Mohle-Boetani
and her colleagues investigated five outbreaks of salmonellosis and one outbreak
of E. coli O157 that occurred in California between 1996 and 1998. During this
period, half of all disease outbreaks in the state that crossed county lines
were associated with alfalfa or clover sprouts. The
investigators confirmed infections in 600 people and estimate that approximately
22,800 people suffered gastrointestinal illness or urinary tract infections
related to sprouts. The outbreaks killed two people. Alfalfa
and clover seeds are a raw agricultural product that may come in contact with
Salmonella or E. coli from the feces of birds, rodents or other animals during
growth, harvest, processing, storage or shipping, the authors explain. These
illness-causing microbes thrive during the process of seed germination and
actual plant growth, they add. ``Most
consumers and retailers do not cook sprouts, and since bacteria on the seed
surface can become internalized during sprouting, washing sprouts is probably an
ineffective way to eliminate (any disease-causing microbes),'' Mohle-Boetani and
colleagues warn. Salmonella
infects the gastrointestinal system, causing cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
and fever. In rare cases, Salmonella food poisoning can lead to serious,
sometimes fatal, complications in small children, the elderly or those with
weakened immune systems. E.
coli O157:H7 infection often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps.
Children younger than 5 years of age and elderly people are particularly
vulnerable to a complication of infection with the bacterium called hemolytic
uremic syndrome, in which red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail.
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