E.coli wars as experts clash over cheese ban
A WAR of words has broken out between experts over a deadly E. coli outbreak.
Food Safety Scotland (FSS) has been branded ‘draconian’ for, in effect, closing down Errington Cheese, the Lanarkshire company suspected to be at the centre of the ongoing alert.
The agency’s chief executive Geoff Ogle has now defended the decision, and claims microbiology authority Professor Hugh Pennington, a vocal critic, is ill-informed.
In a stinging rebuke to the Aberdeen University emeritus professor, Mr Ogle said: ‘It is regrettable that someone in his position of influence and responsibility continues to make assertions, some of which are inaccurate.’
Last night, though, Professor Pennington – who headed an investigation into the notorious 1996 Wishaw E.coli outbreak, which killed 21 people – insisted that heavyhanded action risks weakening food safety across the country.
In all, 22 people have been infected since July with the deadly O157 strain of the bug, with half of them needing hospital treatment – including a three-month-old girl who later died.
Investigators soon focused on Dunsyre Blue cheese and officials zeroed in on the family-run company in Carnwath. FSS has embargoed all four of the company’s product lines – effectively shutting down the business – after finding O157 in a batch of Lanark White and non-O157 in Dunsyre Blue, plus genes suggestive of contamination. The findings are contested by the cheesemaker.
Mr Ogle said: ‘It is important to state that FSS is not anti-business. The decision to recall products from Errington Cheese was taken based on evidence, which included the results of independent scientific tests on a number of batches of cheese. I wonder what he [Professor Pennington] is basing his conclusions on in asserting that FSS’s actions were draconian. He has had no direct involvement in the investigation of this incident.’
Professor Pennington retorted: ‘Mr Ogle has been direct in his criticism of me as I have been about FSS so that’s fine. As yet, the evidence that Errington is the source of this outbreak is circumstantial at best and the outbreak strain of E.coli O157 has not been found in its cheese.
‘There is currently no evidence that the company has done anything wrong. It has been inspected by the local authority and been given a clean bill of health. So it is a puzzle why this draconian action has been taken.’
He added: ‘You will never get to the bottom of most individual E.coli cases and, even with outbreaks, you often won’t find the source.
‘A balance has to be struck so that inspectors are not letting businesses off the hook but, equally, are not being unreasonably heavy-handed.
‘One badly-handled case could have knock-on effects across the food industry. If businesses are reticent about co-operating, it makes it more difficult for both sides.’
An FSS spokesman said: ‘FSS is fully aware of the impact on the business, but its priority and primary focus is to protect public health.’
‘Circumstantial at best’