K A S H R U T . C O M_©

The following health alert is from FSNET and YNetnews.com on June 1, 2007.

Israeli Health and Agriculture Ministries are investigating a claim made by European health officials attributing several cases of salmonella poisoning to consumption of Israeli-grown basil. On Monday the ministry received reports of the discovery of the senfenberg strain of salmonella infecting several dozen people in England, Scotland, Denmark and Holland within the space of a few months. An epidemiological inquiry led researchers abroad to suspect that the source of the poisoning was basil originating in Israel. Agricultural officials are currently examining soil and product samples from the three exporters who sent basil shipments to the locations in question during the estimated time window and the results are expected on Wednesday. Health officials have already finished testing the irrigation water for the fields in question and no abnormalities were found.