Fatal E.coli in Germany: Regulating global food supply chain

Contamination of the global food supply chain doesn't only happen in China.  Here was a PowerPoint presentation which Bill Marler, expert on food-borne diseases, provided in China after the tainted infant-formula crisis Download 2007ChinaFoodSafety-Bill.  Those sources of contamination did make their way into the U.S. food system as well as that of other nations. Brand China took a major hit.

Now, in Germany, there have been 14 fatal cases of E.coli.  The source, reports William Pentland in FORBES, are cucumbers imported from Spain.  The total number sickened has reached about 1200.  But the epidemic isn't confined to Germany.  Those in Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands have also been affected.  

However, and this is bad for tourism, the lion's share of E.coli illness from the imported cucumbers has occurred among travelers to and from Germany.  Brand Germany could also take a hit. 

 
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control might have to think systems-approach.  That was the way the U.S. Government essentially eradicated contamination of the meat supply after the Jack-in-the-Box burger fatalities.  Here is Marler's testimony on the success of that kind of intervention Download TestimonyEnergy.