CFA continues to respond to the STEC fatal outbreak between April and June, which took the lives of two people, caused illness in nearly 300 and is estimated to have cost the industry in excess of £10m. The outbreak has prompted CFA’s call for a review of STEC test methods, the interpretation of unconfirmed results and the application and legal relevance of HPA RTE criteria for generic (non-pathogenic) E. coli.
Under the advice of FSA in mid-June certain short shelf life foods (e.g. sandwiches and wraps) were recalled with media reporting the FSA’s hypothesis of salad leaves being the source. However, both the source and vehicle of the outbreak remain unconfirmed by microbiological data.
Karin Goodburn, CFA Director General: “No direct microbiological evidence has confirmed any specific source, food or food ingredient, or its origin. .
“It would be highly exceptional for short shelf-life foods, produced to world-leading standards, and for which not a single test has shown either a non-compliance nor any STEC presence, to be implicated on scientific grounds.”
The outbreak has highlighted weaknesses in the current STEC test methodology, including it being too slow to provide confirmed results within a meaningful timeframe, laboratories sometimes carrying out non-accredited methods, decisions being made without confirmation and Local Authorities acting on non-relevant HPA guidelines which conflict with UK legislation. For example, the criteria used for detection and confirmation of STEC in clinical scenarios is not feasible for produce that has a short shelf-life (as little as two days for a sandwich, or a week for lettuce) and the organism may only be present exceptionally rarely but in very small numbers.
In response to this CFA, working with the Food Safety Research Network at QIB and Scotland’s Rural College, is establishing a pan-industry/UK Government workshop to identify how to resolve these issues.
Karin explains: “The aim is to bring together industry, researchers, method developers and UK Government authorities to identify how to address the urgent need for all parties to be able to conduct accurate, timely and economical testing for STEC that provides actionable results and positive impact for public health and food safety.”
September 2024