Sprouts Tabbed As E. Coli Source

Supermarkets pulled radish sprouts off the shelves after the government said they probably caused a food poisoning outbreak that killed a 10-year-old girl and sickened 6,308 schoolchildren in a central Japanese city.

Sprout growers filed a protest with the Health Ministry. “We will fight until there’s a retraction,” said Eiichi Kajiki, who grows radish sprouts in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo.

The outbreak of E. coli O157 bacteria has killed seven people and sickened more than 9,000 nationwide. The bacteria causes stomach pains, bloody diarrhea and kidney failure.

The government said Wednesday that the source of the bacteria in the hardest-hit city of Sakai, 300 miles west of Tokyo, likely was pungent green sprouts called “kaiware daikon,” often eaten with salad.

Major supermarkets quickly pulled radish sprouts off their shelves Wednesday, and Kyodo News Service said airline food service providers also decided to stop serving them.

“We have not been eating uncooked food anyway, but I am going to stop buying kaiware,” said Masako Okamoto, a Sakai housewife.

The Japan Kaiware Association, representing some 50 growers nationwide, filed a protest with the Health Ministry claiming evidence implicating the sprouts was too circumstantial.

The sprouts became suspect in Sakai after an investigation eliminated most other items from school menus. No traces of the bacteria were found in sprout samples from the cafeterias or at the grower that provided them to schools. But a retirement home in nearby Habikino city, where the same sprouts were eaten, suffered a similar outbreak.

The cause of the poisoning outside of Sakai is still under investigation, and the government is under intense pressure to find the source of the outbreak.

When Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Sakai on Tuesday, he was greeted by a protest by frustrated restaurateurs.