Bulgaria Probes Retailers for Contaminated Cucumbers

An illustration dated 26 May 2011 shows a knife cutting a cucumber from Spain in Duesseldorf, Germany. The Hamburg Hygiene Institute has identified Spanish cucumbers as the source of the dangerous strain of EHEC bacteria. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria's Food Safety Authority has said it is in the process of contacting all retailers, suppliers and caterers in relation to an outbreak of E Coli in Germany to ensure there is no contaminated product here.

The probe will cover fresh vegetables, imported from European Union countries.

More than 200 people have been affected by the outbreak of E Coli in Germany and four people have died. Cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark, Britain, and the Netherlands.

German health officials said Thursday that cucumbers imported from Spain was one source of the recent deadly E. coli outbreak in northern states.

The Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment (HU) found that four cucumbers in a local market were contaminated by Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), and three of them were imported from two separate Spanish suppliers, Hamburg state health authorities said.

The origin of the fourth cucumber was still under investigation, officials added.

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