Russia bans all fresh vegetables from EU because of E.coli outbreak

(CNN) -- Russia has announced a ban on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union, state media reported Thursday.

Russian customs officials have been instructed to prevent the produce from entering the country, according to Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Health and Consumer Rights.

Supermarkets and food chains in Russia were told to withdraw European vegetables from their produce bins, Onishchenko told state media.

The ban comes in the wake of a deadly E. coli outbreak that has swept across parts of Europe.

The outbreak is responsible for 15 deaths in Germany and one in Sweden, according to media reports citing local authorities.

CNN has confirmed at least 12 deaths, including a woman in Sweden who had recently visited Germany. The outbreak has sickened more than 1,000 people.

The ban on fresh vegetables from the European Union comes three days after Russia blocked the import of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens from Germany and Spain.

Russia gets a majority of its fresh vegetables from China and Turkey.

The European Food Safety Alert Network said EHEC, or enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, a strain of E. coli that causes hemorrhaging in the intestines, was found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain.

But the source has not yet been pinpointed, authorities said.

source - www.cnn.com...

related links -
en.rian.ru...
gazeta.ru... (in Russian)

yesterday cucumbers and fresh salad from Germany were banned.

The biggest problem of all this - there's a real trouble with getting fresh vegetables here in Moscow. They are expensive, and even if you are ready to pay about $7 per kg, you will spend quite a lot of time looking fo something which looks edible.
For the last time I was buying foreign vegetables for our family (spanish tomatoes, for example, btw they are cheaper than local ones), now I really don't know what to do, eat only marinated ones?


Personally I don't believe much that any disease may hide inside fresh vegetable. It should be on the skin. Just wash it thoroughly and peel it, and nothing bad will happen...

Hopefully these kinds of situations will encourage more people to start growing their own fruit and vegetables.

Can't rely on a supply chain in any form or country.

reply to post by Sovaka

the ecology of any large city is so bad, that you can't eat any fruits/vegetables grown there, they can be much worse then german ones.

Of course if you have an ability to grow your own food in the country side you should use it.

Originally posted by Sovaka
Hopefully these kinds of situations will encourage more people to start growing their own fruit and vegetables.

Can't rely on a supply chain in any form or country.

Maybe that's a possible reason for the whole e.cola out break in the first place.

Folks, nothing against gardening, but learn a little about what you're doing. Learn about proper watering, proper spacing, soil sterilization, plant diseases and pathogen environments too so that you have a better chance of recognizing issues. Oh yea and.. and... minimize tillage when possible; Tilling shreds the soil and contributes to the loss of micro-culture.. do soil tests as well. A 4-5 inch under pruning of each plant where possible will aid in avoiding splash up which can lead to pathogen fester.

In the case of knowing e-coli, going organic or growing at home doesn't mean your produce is less susceptible to e-coli, on the contrary, ecoli can be transmitted through handling, contaminated water, and even improper fertilization (ie using manure). Also, just because a few dumb asses tell you its cool to use a waterless toilet and that you can compost your own fecal matter, doesn't necessarily mean you should do it. be sanitary ffs.

(Reuters) - Russia banned imports of fresh vegetables from the European Union Thursday, accusing Brussels of sowing chaos by failing to give sufficient information about a deadly E.coli outbreak.

The European Commission said Moscow's move was disproportionate.
...
"The kind of things that have been happening in the EU for a whole month do not even happen in African countries," Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor, told Reuters by telephone.

"I would call the action of the EU health regulators and the other European bodies responsible for this disgrace unprofessional and irresponsible," said Onishchenko.

The European Commission urged Russia to end its ban immediately.

"The European Commission protested to the Russian Federation this afternoon against the Russian ban imposed earlier today on all EU vegetable exports to Russia, and requested the immediate withdrawal of the measure," the EU executive said in a statement.
European Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said earlier that the EU Health Commission John Dalli would write to Moscow to express their objections.

The ban comes a week before Russia, whose leaders have often accused Europe and the United States of trying to force their rules on it, hosts EU leaders at a summit in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.

rather long article here - www.reuters.com...
for Russian-speakers - www.gazeta.ru... www.gazeta.ru...


Well... I'm proud of my country now. The government really acts to protect the people....

Yo ATS, check this out.

reply to post by AstraCat


My personal thought about this particular strain of E. coli is that it was produced by GMO companies like Monsanto. They have been known to "create" other strains of E. coli, so why not this one? it's very hard to read, but i suggest anyone who's concerned about our food supply do a little reading on how this is done. it involves some really "frankenstein" science. This is a small clip from a wikipedia page regarding "genetically modified organisms", en.wikipedia.org... (and as you can see, they ADMIT to CREATING strains of E. coli):

"The general principle of producing a GMO is to add new genetic material into an organism's genome. This is called genetic engineering and was made possible through the discovery of DNA and the creation of the first recombinant bacteria in 1973; an existing bacterium E. coli expressing an exogenic Salmonella gene.[4] This led to concerns in the scientific community about potential risks from genetic engineering, which were first discussed in depth at the Asilomar Conference in 1975. One of the main recommendations from this meeting was that government oversight of recombinant DNA research should be established until the technology was deemed safe.[5][6] Herbert Boyer then founded the first company to use recombinant DNA technology, Genentech, and in 1978 the company announced creation of an E. coli strain producing the human protein insulin.[7]"

washing fruit and veggies before you eat them would remove normal E. coli bacteria. it used to be that in order to get E. coli poisoning from a food, you had to eat a rather large chunk of feces - on veggies or fruit, this would be visible. in things like ground meat where the feces is mixed into it, you'd have to eat a rather large chunk of raw meat. if neither of these things occurred to contract these most recent poisonings, then logic would dictate the E. coli strain is part of the plant. how did it get in the genetic make-up of a sprout or a cucumber? frankenfood is my guess. do you think you can just grow your own food and eliminate the threat? Not so in the U.S. anymore - do a little research into who controls roughly 90 percent of the corn, soybeans, and cotton here already. and when they own the patent to the only seeds available, we're stuck with what they sell us.

Why can't we all stick to our own home grown fruit and veg?

Originally posted by happinness
Why can't we all stick to our own home grown fruit and veg?

Some of us just don't have the space. and i'm in a situation right now where the landlord won't allow us to have vegetable gardens. flowers are allowed, but not veggies.... farmers' markets are an option tho. but a lot of americans are on public assistance and can't use the "food card" at unapproved locations like that. in some situations, it's become very difficult to produce your own food. also, if these are GMO foods that are poisoning people (not saying that they are, but IF they are) then planting your own seeds, patented by those companies, really solves nothing.

Hi NotThat One

I know what you mean about space and rules etc. I know how petty these rules can be. Overall though, surely locally grown fruit and veg is available?
I also think about the carbon footprint with the distribution of food across the globe. Half of it, it not more is in coolers,
by the time it arrives in the shops, it can hardly be called fresh! Infact our local farmshop (sound great!) but actually buy the fruit and veg from New Covent garden market in London. Where everyone else gets it from and don't always state where it was grown. It could have come from Timbucktoo for all we know!
Is like everything a big con!

reply to post by AstraCat


There has to be some other motive for banning all vegetables from the EU. You are correct in stating that a thorough washing would most likely eliminate any contaminates.

Something tells me ,there is more to this than meets the eye. Seems like another manipulation agenda, and for what purposes? I guess time will tell..hopefully.

Originally posted by happinness
Why can't we all stick to our own home grown fruit and veg?

Because not everyone has access to gardens...and like the op said, the chances of contamination are just as good in home grown vegetables, if you don't take the proper steps,and proper precautions in growing one.

I don't think this story was put out there for public health safety anyhow..There was a different reason, and the dominoes seem to be falling as the OP stated what Russia is now doing..