Tests show bean sprouts from German farm are NOT cause of E. coli outbreak

Initial tests appear to show the outbreak was not from the bean sprouts grown at a farm near Hamburg.

INITIAL TESTS ON bean sprouts at organic farm at centre of German E.coli outbreak investigation have proved negative according to health officials.

The German state of Lower-Saxony’s agriculture ministry said this afternoon that 23 of 40 samples from the sprout farm suspected of being behind the outbreak have tested negative for the relevant bacteria.

It said further tests are pending.

Earlier it had been reported that a farm near Hamburg where the sprouts had been grown was suspected of having been the source of the E. coli outbreak that has so far killed 22 people, 21 in Germany and one in Sweden, and sickened more than 2,300 across Europe.

- additional reporting from AP

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