More than 80 people in France infected with salmonella after eating pumpkin seeds

An outbreak of salmonella related to a batch of pumpkin seeds infected 81 people, hospitalizing six, in several French regions between May and August, the Health and Agriculture ministries said in a joint statement on Friday, TodayPress TV reports.

"The investigation ... shows that the source of the infection was pumpkin seeds supplied by a processing plant in the department of Lot-et-Garonne... The French health ministry ... has identified a genomic group of Salmonella Enteritidis, which to date has 81 cases of infection with the same strain," the statement said.

According to the statement from the aforesaid ministries, the strains were found in patients between May 3 and August 12. During the investigation, the French Ministry of Health surveyed a number of patients to find out what products they had consumed, when, and where.

Six of those surveyed were hospitalized, two went to the emergency room due to the infection. At the moment, all patients have recovered and returned home. The civil protection department of the Lot-et-Garonne department conducted an inspection of the aforementioned seed processing plant, but so far it has not been possible to identify the source of the contamination.

The management of the enterprise itself, without waiting for the completion of the inspection, has begun a recall of its products from retail chains. The Health and Agriculture ministries noted in their statement that not only unpackaged pumpkin seeds are subject to recall, but also mixtures in the composition of which they are included.