This type of alfalfa package may be contaminated with salmonellaSalmonella sprouts
Norway's Food Safety Authority has stopped the sale of alfalfa sprouts from the company Norske Spirer after ten people have been found to have the bacteria Salmonella Weltevreden.
The same bacteria in sprouts from the same supplier have been found in Denmark.
The sprouts come in 100-gram packages from Norske Spirer AS and BAMA AS (marked Norske Spirer AS), produced on the Fjeld farm in Nord-Odal. Products with a use-by date of November 7, 2007 have been banned.
This is the third incident involving unsafe food in circulation in Norway in two weeks. Last week a listeria outbreak was apparently linked to organic cheese and on Monday listeria was found in a consignment of cured salmon produced by Godehav and sold by the Rema 1000 grocery chain.
The alfalfa sprouts are imported from Italy, via Germany and Denmark. The banned lot is a 300-kilogram (660 lb) consignment of seeds that produce roughly double the weight in sprouts.
The 100-gram packages have been sold to 22 wholesalers, and from there sold on to retailers, health food stores, institutional kitchens, including hospitals and nursing homes, cafés and restaurants.
"We are talking about a very large dispersion. The product also has a two-week shelf life, so people may have had it in their refrigerators a while," said FSA senior adviser Tor Odd Silseth.
Ten people have been confirmed ill from the Salmonella Weltevreden bacteria, all are in the age range 35-60, and the majority are women.
Silseth urges consumers to either throw out the sprouts or to take them back to shops for a refund. He recommended that people who feel ill or have diarrhea after consuming sprouts contact a physician.
Kirsti Østvang
Aftenposten English Web Desk
Jonathan Tisdall
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