Sweetcorn health alert after listeria outbreak kills nine
‘Specific risk to the elderly’
A HEALTH alert was issued yesterday over frozen sweetcorn following nine deaths from listeria poisoning.
The contamination has been traced to a food plant in Hungary which is known to have had problems since 2016. It had been allowed to stay open until only a few days ago.
The bug is a specific risk to people with a weakened immune system, such as the elderly, as well as to pregnant women and unborn babies.
UK health and food watchdogs have recorded 47 cases of illness and nine deaths across Europe dating back over three years. Eleven of the cases were in Britain, at the cost of two lives. All details of the victims are being withheld.
Eight of the British cases were reported in the first half of this year, suggesting frozen sweetcorn sitting in kitchen freezers across the country could be a threat. Listeria can be killed off by thorough cooking, however some people fail to cook sweetcorn for long enough or eat it raw in salads.
A recall of several supermarket brands of frozen sweetcorn and frozen mixed vegetables, which include sweetcorn, is expected to be announced over the next few days.
The health alert will raise questions over the effectiveness of UK and European food safety systems. Public Health England said it became aware of a possible link between cases on the Continent and those in the UK only in March.
A spokesman said: ‘In the UK, there have been two deaths due to listeria linked to this outbreak. In both cases the individuals had underlying health conditions.’ Some of the contaminated batches of Hungarian sweetcorn were packaged in Poland before being sent to retailers across Europe, including the UK.
It was produced at a plant in Baja by Greenyard, a Belgian firm which describes itself as Europe’s second biggest seller of frozen vegetables and fruit. It also has factories in Boston, Lincolnshire, and King’s Lynn in Norfolk.
The Food Standards Agency said it was working with suppliers to ‘ensure action can be taken to stop unsafe product being placed on the market’.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which has been investigating the outbreak, said: ‘Frozen corn and possibly other frozen vegetables are the likely source of an outbreak of listeria monocytogenes that has been affecting Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom since 2015.
‘The available information confirms the contamination at the Hungarian plant. However, further investigations, including thorough sampling and testing, are needed to identify the exact points of environmental contamination.’
The Hungarian Food Chain Safety Office shut down the plant on June 29 and issued a safety recall. However EFSA admitted this did not mean the threat had been eliminated.
It warned: ‘New cases could still emerge due to the long incubation period of listeriosis of up to 70 days; the long shelf-life of frozen corn products; and the consumption of frozen corn bought before the recalls and eaten without being cooked properly.’
In a statement yesterday Greenyard said it was recalling all frozen vegetables produced at the plant in Baja between August 2016 and June 2018.
It added: ‘This measure is taken in the framework of potential listeria contamination of frozen products. It relates to a specific type of listeria, which might incur health risks in case frozen vegetables are not properly cooked before consumption. Products involved include frozen corn, peas, beans, spinach and sorrel.
‘The recall initiative of these products does not imply that they are actually contaminated, and Greenyard is committed to taking a maximum of precautionary measures as food safety is Greenyard’s number one priority.’
John Hyman, who is chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said: ‘I would like to reassure people that there is no danger from eating frozen vegetables that are cooked properly.
‘Here in the UK we endorse the advice from the Food Standards Agency that consumers should always follow manufacturer’s instructions when preparing their food. If the frozen vegetables are not labelled as “ready to eat”, the cooking instructions should always be followed.’