“The federal agency for food chain security has banned imports from two distributors,” said Sabine Laruelle, Belgium’s agriculture minister who was in eastern Hungary for a European Union ministerial meeting.

Verifications had already showed that “no Spanish cucumbers had been imported since winter,” she said.

She added that the affair brought the risks of globalisation to light.

“A problem with Spanish cucumbers and its Europe that trembles,” she said.

The bacteria, which can provoke deadly haemorrhages in the digestive system, is feared to still be spreading across the continent.