Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T02:02:17.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning caused by contaminated lasagne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

M. C. Woolaway ,
C. L. R. Bartlett ,
Antonnette A. Wieneke ,
R. J. Gilbert ,
Helen C. Murrell  and
P. Aureli
M. C. Woolaway
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory Service, Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London NW9 5EQ
C. L. R. Bartlett
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory Service, Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London NW9 5EQ
Antonnette A. Wieneke
Affiliation:
Central Public Health Laboratory, LondonNW9 5HT
R. J. Gilbert
Affiliation:
Central Public Health Laboratory, LondonNW9 5HT
Helen C. Murrell
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Social Security, London, SE1
P. Aureli
Affiliation:
Instituto Superiore Di Sanita, Rome, Italy
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning in Europe caused by contaminated lasagne was detected and monitored by both national and international surveillance systems. The common source was a pasta-producing factory in Italy and high levels of Staphylococcus aureus were detected in packets of dried lasagne distributed in Luxembourg, the UK, France and Italy. Forty-seven cases were reported in the UK. Outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning attributed to mishandling during the food processing stage are uncommon and pasta as the food vehicle is rare. Prompt recognition of the outbreak and rapid identification of the food vehicle enabled most of the consignment to be withdrawn from the market.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 96 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 67 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

References

REFERENCES

Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre: Public Health Laboratory Service (1980). Food poisoning and salmonellosis surveillance in England and Wales: 1979. British Medical Journal 281, 1360–1361.Google Scholar
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre: Public Health Laboratory Service (1982). Food poisoning and salmonellosis surveillance in England and Wales: 1980. British Medical Journal 283, 924–925.Google Scholar
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre: Public Health Laboratory Service (1982). Food poisoning and salmonellosis surveillance in England and Wales: 1981. British Medical Journal 285, 1127–1128.Google Scholar
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre: Public Health Laboratory Service (1984). Food poisoning and salmonellosis surveillance in England and Wales: 1982. British Medical Journal 288, 306–308.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1984 a). Letter dated 16 February 1984: Dried Italian Lasagne, Public Warnings on 9 and 13 February 1984. CMO(84)3. London: DHSS.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1984 b). Press Release 9 February 1984. Dried Egg Lasagne – Health Warning. PN84/34.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1984 C). Press Release 13 February 1984. Further Health Warning – Dried Italian Lasagne. PN84/38.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1984 d). Letter dated 11 July 1984. Dried Italian Lasagne CMO(84)5. London: DHSS.Google Scholar
de Saxe, M., Coe, A. W. & Wieneke, A. A. (1982). The use of phage typing in the investigation of food poisoning caused by Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins. In Isolation and Identification Methods for Food Poisoning Organisms. Society for Applied Bacteriology Technical Series No. 17 (ed. Corry, J. E. L., Roberts, D. and Skinner, F. A.), pp. 173–197. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Elliott, R. P. (1980). Cereals and Cereal products. In Microbial Ecology of Foods, vol. n: Food Commodities, International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods, pp. 718–719. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, R. J. & Wieneke, A. A. (1973). Staphylococcal food poisoning with special reference to the detection of enterotoxin in food. In The Microbiological Safety of Food (ed. Hobbs, B. C. and Christian, J. H. B.), pp. 273–285. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lee, W. H., Staples, C. L. & Olson, J. C. (1975). Staphylococcus aureus growth and survival in macaroni dough and the persistence of enterotoxins in the dried products. Journal of Food Science 40, 119–120.Google Scholar
Matejovska, V., Ticha, J. & Cernovsky, J. (1972). Findings of staphylococci in pasta products. Journal of Hygiene, Epidemiology, Microbiology, Immunology 16, 148–153.Google Scholar
Notermans, S., Boot, R., Tips, P. D. & de Nooy, M. P. (1983). Extraction of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) from minced meat and subsequent detection of SE with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Journal of Food Protection 46, 238–241.Google Scholar
Rayman, M. K., Weiss, K. F., Riedel, G. W., Charbonneau, S. & Jarvis, G. A. (1981). Microbiological quality of pasta products sold in Canada. Journal of Food Protection 44, 746–749.Google Scholar
Roberts, D. (1982). Factors contributing to outbreaks of food poisoning in England and Wales 1970–1979. Journal of Hygiene 89, 491–498.Google Scholar
Šimkovičová, M. & Gilbert, R. J. (1971). Serological detection of enterotoxin from food poisoning strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Medical Microbiology 4, 19–30.Google Scholar
Walsh, D. E. & Funke, B. R. (1975). The influence of spaghetti extruding, drying and storage on survival of Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Food Science 40, 714–716.Google Scholar
Wieneke, A. A. & Gilbert, R. J. (1985). The use of a sandwich Elisa for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin A in foods from outbreaks of food poisoning. Journal of Hygiene 95, 131–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed