ID :
187840
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 11:11
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http://m.oananews.org//node/187840
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Thailand intensifies checks on imported veggies
BANGKOK, June 11 (TNA) - Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has intensified its inspections and tests on vegetables and fruits imported from Europe as a more precaution, after finding imported avocados contaminated with a non-harmful strain of the E. coli bacteria.
Thai FDA officials have visited cargo containers which held more than five tonnes of frozen mixed vegetables, mixed peppers, cauliflower and carrots imported from Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom and collected a kilogram of each as samples for official tests at the laboratory of the Thai Ministry of Public Health's Department of Medical Sciences.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health said, however, that it has no plan to take all veggies imported from Europe off the domestic market, but it is regularly conducting tests on the imported veggies--amid current outbreaks of the E. coli in the northern hemisphere, which has infected more than 2,900 people in 14 countries in Europe and the United States, about 30 of them have died over nearly the past two weeks, although there have been no reports of any E. coli infection in Thailand so far.
The spreading O104 strain is part of a class of bacteria known as Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, or STEC. Thai caretaker public health minister Jurin Laksanawisit has noted that the spreading, deadly O104 E. coli is the most severe strain of all five E. coli strains, as it can dissolve red blood cells and cause kidney failure. (TNA)
Thai FDA officials have visited cargo containers which held more than five tonnes of frozen mixed vegetables, mixed peppers, cauliflower and carrots imported from Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom and collected a kilogram of each as samples for official tests at the laboratory of the Thai Ministry of Public Health's Department of Medical Sciences.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health said, however, that it has no plan to take all veggies imported from Europe off the domestic market, but it is regularly conducting tests on the imported veggies--amid current outbreaks of the E. coli in the northern hemisphere, which has infected more than 2,900 people in 14 countries in Europe and the United States, about 30 of them have died over nearly the past two weeks, although there have been no reports of any E. coli infection in Thailand so far.
The spreading O104 strain is part of a class of bacteria known as Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, or STEC. Thai caretaker public health minister Jurin Laksanawisit has noted that the spreading, deadly O104 E. coli is the most severe strain of all five E. coli strains, as it can dissolve red blood cells and cause kidney failure. (TNA)
