As the death toll in the German E. coli O104 outbreak rose to 33, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirmed test results announced on Friday that identified bean sprouts from an organic farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel as carrying the virulent E. coli.

A man notified authorities after suspecting he might be in possession of some of the dangerous sprouts. The Bienenbuettel farm has since closed down.

"These results are an important step in the chain of evidence," said BfR director Andreas Hensel.

The EU executive’s health chief John Dalli welcomed the confirmation.

"I welcome this extremely important development: the source of contamination is now identified and the epidemiological findings are backed by laboratory results. EU consumers and trade partners shall now have full confidence as regards the safety of EU’s vegetables."

Speaking on WDR-5 radio station on Saturday, the minister for the environment and consumer protection in North-Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Remmel, urged all consumers to report any suspicious vegetable sprouts.

But in another premature explanation, Gert Hahne, spokesman for the consumer protection office of Lower Saxony state, said today, "Everything we have looked into until now shows the farm was flawless. It is hygienic and followed all the regulations. No matter how you look at it we don’t see any fault with the farm or legal ground to hold them accountable. You cannot punish someone for having bad luck."

However the farm has been shut down. Authorities say results of tests taken there have yet to place E.coli on site, but that some 500 samples are still being examined — including some from the farm’s seeds, which came from Europe and Asia.

I don’t have confidence because no one is talking about the on-farm food safety steps that are taken other then some opaque ‘strict standards.’ Where did the seeds originate? Were they pre-treated with chlorine before germination or is that not allowed under organic standards? Is anyone checking? What is a suspicious vegetable sprout?

Faith-based food safety at its best.