Conn. The day after Therrien gave birth to her second child, her grandmother started experiencing the telltale symptoms of E. coli infection. Less than a week after the infection was diagnosed in the hospital, Jasmin's organs began to fail and she was put on a ventilator. She looked very scared. A few days later, Jasmin who apparently got sick from something she ate was gone. Fresh fruits and vegetables may actually be just as risky as meat, because they are easily contaminated during growing, harvesting, and shipping, and because they are eaten raw.
Some experts are particularly concerned about seed sprouts.
Sprouts infected with salmonella or E. coli have caused more than 1,000 confirmed cases of disease and two deaths. Once seeds become contaminated, the warm, moist conditions used in sprout cultivation encourage the bacteria to multiply. And because sprouts are rarely cooked, the organisms continue to flourish. In 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a consumer advisory, warning people at high risk to simply pass up raw sprouts. So far I haven't noticed any difference.