BTW, this is a picture of a Spanish cucumber field, published today in El Pais. I had never seen having to reach up to pick a cucumber.
Posted on 05/27/2011 6:33:39 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
Three people in Britain have been diagnosed with a lethal strain of E.Coli that has already killed five people in Germany.
Almost 300 people in northern Germany are in hospital and around 500 more are being tested for the infection.
Organic cucumbers from Spain are thought to be the source of the bacteria, but travellers to Germany are also being advised to avoid eating raw tomatoes and lettuce.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease centre, said 60 cases had been reported in the last 24 hours alone, and infections have also been confirmed in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Organic? Does that mean it was grown in manure?
We had problems here similarly, didn’t we? That’s what happens when you have illegal aliens, or whomever you legally import, treat your field like they would fields, and many other areas, of their home countries.
Organic?
Yeah, Organic contamination.
Didn’t Paris Hilton have a similar problem with
foreign cucumbers, or am I thinking of Madonna?
BTW, this is a picture of a Spanish cucumber field, published today in El Pais. I had never seen having to reach up to pick a cucumber.
Great Big “DUH!”
Great Big Duuuh!
Yep, it must be a slow day, this was on Drudge.
These appear to be the “Armenian cucumber,” a long, ridged, thin-skinned variety that is supposedly burpless (for persons sensitive to cukes). Personally, I think it’s also flavorless...
Many of the pickers, particularly in El Ejido, are actually not Spaniards but come from various benighted and disease-ridden parts of the ME.
However, the contamination could have come from anywhere. Who knows?
Okay but was the e-coli contamination systemic? It’s ok to wash the outside but if the contamination came up through the root system it won’t work.
E-coli does not generate through the root system & it does not bore into the food. If it is present, it is a surface issue. The only way for the bacteria to contaminate the inside of the fruit/verggie is during the cutting process via the cutting mechanism aka peeler/knife.
The cucumbers are trellised, which is a much cleaner way to grow them.
According to El Pais some Dutch cucumbers have tested positive for E. coli, reinforcing the idea that the cotamination took place in transit.
Once again, when I was growing up in Spain, most of the farm labor came from Morocco and overall they were absolutely ignorant of the most basic hygiene. My grandad hired a family, provided them with housing, and a few months later we found out they stored their food in the bathroom (in the tub) and used the backyard as a latrine!
I had never seen that! I can see the advantage, especially at the time of picking them. I live in SC and every summer I feel for the migrants who are bent over the rows of plants, picking cucumbers. I think it must be a relief when they stand up and carry the basket to the collecting trailer. I wonder how long I would be able to do it, before kneeling, almost crawling.
When I’m home I never buy fruit or veggies from any country south of the border. I buy strictly home farmed local or know exactly where it came from. And then too, I’m with you on what you wrote.
Contamination does NOT take place in transit from the supplier to the store, it is done in the picking/packaging process. One small slip of the product into contaminated dirt or handled by contaminated hands exposes the entire lot it comes into contact with. So, if the product is picked and boxed at the same time, contamination is limited to the box. However, like tomatoes & many other veggies, they are picked, placed in temp bins or on conveyors that load the product in a bulk truck, then shipped to the packaging plant where it is crated/boxed for distribution.
After further research on it you’re right. I stand corrected. It’s all surface contamination.
I did not say that contamination took place in transit, I was just reporting what the Spanish newspapers say about it. Like I said, this finger pointing game would be funny if people weren’t sick and dying!
I’m in the north, so I eat south of the border produce everyday. I especially like vine ripe tomatoes & green onions which we can only get in season for a very limited time up here.(yes, my garden is planted, can’t wait for mid-summer) Hubby likes to eat grapes going down the road. That south of the border thing is nothing more than political fear mongering. FYI...local doesn’t mean it has not been picked by illegal farmer worker immigrants. They are crawling everywhere up here, especially in MN & IA & the local markets are not what they used to be. One big corporate family with political ties has the monopoly on our local produce stands now. They have literally crushed the family farmer out of business other than the weekly tiny farmers market where it is mostly plants & home baked goods that is sold. The big farm corps start selling corn, etc before the its even in season here. We were not born yesterday. It’s not local product they are selling, but they make it look as if it is.
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