36 people became ill with E.coli O157 from food that contained Cucumber.
36 people became ill with E.coli O157 in August 2020, from food that contained Cucumber. Which fast food restaurant was responsible?
A recent report published in April 2021 and written by Public Health England (PHE) officials stated “In August 2020, an outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli(STEC) O157:H7 occurred in the United Kingdom”
Of the 36 confirmed cases there were medical records for 33 people, 13 of whom required hospital treatment and 25 reported bloody diarrhoea.
The report also stated “Twenty-four cases were female (67%) and 12 were male (33%). Cases were between 13 and 60 years of age (median 26 years; interquartile range 19–32.5 years). Cases were distributed across England (n = 27) and Wales (n = 9), with the majority (58%) residing in the two Midlands regions”
The product(s) sold according to the report contained cucumber, chicken, lettuce and sauce.
The report concluded “Consumption of a specific fast-food product was a likely cause of this outbreak. The only ingredient specific to the product was cucumbers. The supply of cucumbers was immediately halted, and no further cases have been identified.”
Link to the report below.
https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712%2821%2900312-X/fulltext?rss=yes
Whilst it is good to see reports such as stated above being published in scientific journals and medical publications etc it would be nice to see these being posted on the regulator’s site, in this case the Food Standard Agency (FSA) website, so we can have truly full transparency and believe in what they say “Food we can trust”.
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