• Home
• About Us
• Subscribe
• Newsletter
• Advertise
• Contact

Worst case scenario?

Tony Hines MBE, head of food security and crisis management at Leatherhead, looks at why botulism has been big news recently...



We managed to get through eight months of 2011 without the crisis management worst case scenario hitting the headlines. Botulism is very rare because the food industry is very good at preventing it. But in September, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued a warning relating to pastas and spreads sold in France that have been linked to an outbreak of botulism.

Although no products were on sale in the UK, there was concern that travellers may be exposed to the products or may have purchased them online. I have not heard of any reported cases of illness. However, the FSA announcement in late October concerning organic olives stuffed with almonds confirmed that these products had been distributed within the UK and that, sadly, two people in Finland had become ill, one of whom later died after eating the implicated olives. No cases were reported of illness in the UK.

In mid-November, reports in the media and an FSA announcement relating to a jar of korma sauce and the hospitalisation of two children from the same family with a suspected botulism-related illness attracted my attention. A consumer level product recall was announced and both in-store and media placements were made as a precautionary measure to alert consumers of the details of one batch of the korma sauce.

It was most encouraging to see the joined up communication strategy between the FSA and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) alerting the medical professionals, GPs, hospitals and consumers to the symptoms, and action and reassurance relating to person to person transmission. We also have a level of reassurance that only one jar in one batch is linked to the illness.

This, of course, raises more questions, though. Firstly, was this caused by a damaged seal or lid? Was it opened and resealed, partly used, temperature-abused or damaged in transit or in the home? What was the pH and how did it grow?

From a crisis management perspective, as I have said, this is ‘worst case scenario’ and a classic example of the value of fast and accurate traceability, efficient epidemiology and joined up communication.

What I found of immense benefit when the recall and media stories broke was the historic database of food incidents on the FoodLine news database. Within minutes I had media reports from the UK and some from overseas on botulism incidents within the food chain. I had 150 ‘hits’ dating back to 1985, when the Leatherhead Daily News Service was introduced.

Interestingly, one of the first ‘hits’ relates to giving honey to children under 12 months, and over the intervening years there have been several cases of infant botulism – a message repeated and reported on the database in January 2011.

The 150 media references gave me an instant recall on the 1987 hazelnut yogurt incident that claimed the life of one elderly lady and hospitalised 26 people. There was also an incident in Algeria linked to the consumption of rotten poultry where six patients died, as well as incidents linked to lumpfish, uncured cooked pork, mascarpone cheese, vegetable soup, infant formula, canned meat in the USA, and non-eviscerated fish.

Finally, although not specifically linked to botulism but still a ‘keyword’ in the case was the file on a shopkeeper selling tins of steak and vegetable puddings in 1997 that were 12 years old.



Show Articles Index

Login

Email: Password:

SUBSCRIBE

• Terms
• Privacy
• Accessibility
• Site Map
• ©Bell Publishing 2010. All Rights Reserved