Warning: Hospital sandwiches could kill you with listeria
HOSPITALS are risking patients’ lives by serving them sandwiches contaminated with a lethal bug, say experts in a shocking report.
The danger comes in pre-packed sandwiches, a popular menu option with many patients – and one that NHS managers like because they are cheap and easy to serve. But food safety advisers are warning that they can contain the deadly bug listeria, which can trigger meningitis. It also kills up to 30 per cent of those it infects.
The report says that pre-packed sandwiches have been responsible for ‘almost all’ hospital outbreaks of listeria since 2003.
The bug kills at least 50 people a year, according to official figures, with most deaths thought to be due to food being prepared and stored incorrectly.
Food safety company STS, which advises hospitals and care homes, believes patients may also be dying from eating infected sandwiches at these institutions.
Fiona Sinclair, director of food safety at STS, said: ‘Hospitals and care homes feed the most vulnerable people in society. The last thing these people need is to get something else on top of their illness.’
Pre-packed sandwiches often contain protein-rich fillings such as meat, paté, cheese, prawns and egg, on which listeria can thrive. Days can elapse between preparation and consumption, giving listeria time to multiply, and experts say too few people
‘The bug could finish off someone at death’s door’
understand that sandwiches must be kept very cold – below 5c – to stop the bug growing.
The report, written by Ms Sinclair and colleagues, says: ‘Research into previous [listeria] outbreaks in hospitals found that almost all were linked to consumption of prepacked sandwiches.’
These cases ‘were thought to have been caused by low-level contamination during manufacture in the factory, followed by a breakdown in the control of the cold chain in the hospitals’.
During recent inspections, Ms Sinclair found sandwiches were being kept in fridges that were not cold enough, staff were serving packs that were past their use-by date, and sandwiches were being left on trolleys for lengthy periods before being handed to patients.
The firm’s report, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, has prompted the FSA to revise its guidance to hospitals and care homes on minimising the risk of listeria. Measures include cutting maximum fridge temperatures from 8c to 5c.
Welcoming the new rules, STS said: ‘The thought that a loved one should lose their life from eating a sandwich in hospital is ridiculous.’
Ms Sinclair said the research, undertaken with Surrey University, identified nine hospital listeria outbreaks across the UK since 2003. Each case affected between two and nine patients. Ms Sinclair said it was unclear from the data they had seen if anyone died from listeria infection during these outbreaks. The fact that the bug kills up to 30 per cent of people in ‘vulnerable groups’ – such as pregnant women and the elderly – suggests that some did.
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said: ‘If somebody is at death’s door, they could be finished off by a sandwich. Listeria can be lethal – it’s as simple as that. It’s one of the nastiest food bugs there is.’
Ms Sinclair said one positive finding was that none of the hospitals previously affected appeared to have suffered a repeat occurrence, suggesting they had improved their practices.