Blaming The South
It really is
a pattern in Europe.
Doubts about the cause of the illness have blossomed with the authorities first saying the infection came from imported Spanish cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. After initially warning consumers not to eat those products, the authorities said last weekend that contaminated bean sprouts were the source.
...
State authorities in Lower Saxony said they had sealed off the likely source of the suspect sprouts — a farm growing organic crops in Bienenbüttel, southeast of Hamburg — and ordered its operators to suspend sales of any other products. Gert Lindemann, the state agriculture minister, said the owners of the farm had already pledged not to sell any produce after their facility came under suspicion last Sunday.