Agriculture minister apologizes for statement

Agriculture Minister Ivan Fuksa, in a Sunday appearance on Czech Television, apologized for a statement he made earlier this week regarding the cucumber scare. He had said on Tuesday that fresh produce could theoretically be tampered with in any distributor’s storage facilities. On Sunday, he apologized for this statement, adding that it could negatively affect the business of distributors of fresh fruit and vegetables. The head of the Czech Agrarian Chamber, Jan Veleba, said he welcomed the minister’s apology.

Nearly twenty people have died from a mutated E.coli bacterium infection in neighboring Germany; cucumbers were shown not to be the source of the infection. Which foods exactly have caused the bacterial outbreaks across Europe is yet unclear.

Author: Sarah Borufka