The E. coli O104 outbreak that killed 53 people and sickened over 4,000, primarily in Germany, was apparently caused by – nothing.

While strong epidemiological evidence pointed to raw sprouts grown from fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt and distributed anywhere and everywhere, a European fact-finding commission has, at least according to this story, cleared Egyptian fenugreek seeds as the source.

All tests conducted by a technical team sent by the European Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to Egypt last month to probe allegations on the presence of highly-toxic E. coli bacteria in Egyptian fenugreek seed have turned up negative, said Salah Mu`awad, the chief of the Egyptian Agriculture Ministry services and follow up division.

The EU had banned the entry of Egyptian grains after suspecting a batch of Egyptian fenugreek seeds was the source of the E. coli outbreak in Spain and Germany in May.

Egypt has since been repeatedly calling for lifting the ban, saying that its fenugreek imports to Europe do not carry the E.coli microbe and promising to fully cooperate with the EU in investigating the real cause of the outbreak.