ABSTRACT
In June in 2011 Europe woke up to the news of a widespread food-borne outbreak of Escherichia coli (E. Coli) caused by the consumption of fresh sprouted fenugreek seeds. The seeds were found to originate from Egypt. In its wake the outbreak, described as the biggest in Europe for decades, left over 3,000 cases of infection and 50 deaths. The outbreak led to the European Union (EU) banning imports of leguminous vegetables from Egypt, along with imports of certain types of seeds. 2 However, EU vegetable exports were also banned from its main markets, notably from the Russian Federation, causing a loss of over one billion Euros to EU farmers. 3
In 2009 the United States of America (US) commenced legal proceedings against the EU at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in EC – Poultry (US) . 4
1 Miguel A Recuerda, ‘Food Safety: Science, Politics and the Law’ (2006) 1 European Food and Feed Law Review 1.
