The Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and
Human Welfare has banned vegetable imports from all EU states, RIA
Novosti cites the service’s head Gennady Onishenko as saying.
Onishenko said that the ban was passed due to lack of control over the
situation for over a month. The source of infection and contamination
factors have not been identified yet.
The decision was preceded by a scandal around cucumbers from Europe.
16 people were poisoned. The intestinal infection spread to the north
of Germany. Over 1,400 cases of infection were registered. Germany
announced that the infection came from Spanish cucumbers. European
companies cancelled or halted contracts for vegetables and fruits from
Spain. Russia banned raw vegetables from Germany and Spain.
The Hamburg Senator for healthcare, Cornelia Prufer-Storks, announced
that analysis shows that the bacteria in cucumbers do not match with
the infection of the patients, which means that the source of
contamination is still unidentified.
Onishenko said that the ban will stay in force until the situation is
clarified and stabilized.
