E.coli row: Firm wins key victory over cheese ban
AN order to destroy cheese made by the firm linked to a recent deadly E.coli outbreak has been lifted.
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) – which is being taken to court by Scottish cheesemaker Humphrey Errington – is no longer asking local authorities to get rid of the produce.
However, a ban is still in place stopping family firm Errington Cheese, based in Carnwath, Lanarkshire, making or selling any of its cheeses.
Yesterday, Mr Errington, 71, disclosed that the company he started nearly four decades ago has had to lay off all 12 of its staff as it struggles to stay afloat.
‘FSS have agreed to withdraw the order to destroy the cheese, but there will still be a judicial review of everything they have done to us,’ he said. ‘It does seem to be an implicit acceptance that the order to destroy the cheese was wrong.’
He added: ‘We are still unable to make cheese or sell any.’
This is not the first time he has taken legal action against the so-called ‘cheese police’.
His business had previously beaten an attempt by the local council to destroy one ton of blue cheese because it carried the food germ listeria. In the 1995 case, a sheriff ruled that the product was safe to eat despite containing levels of the bacteria. Twenty years on, Mr Errington says his firm once again faces ruin.
‘We have had to lay off all our staff, which is the hardest thing,’ he said. ‘Some have been with us all their lives. It was an awful thing to have to do.’
Last night, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) said the number of people infected with the E.coli O157 strain has risen in the past month by four. The total of reported cases now stands at 26 and the outbreak has been declared over.
Many of those infected needed hospital treatment and a threeyear-old girl from Bearsden, near Glasgow, died. A spokesman for HPS said: ‘There were 26 confirmed cases of the same strain of E.coli O157. All cases developed symptoms between July and mid-September 2016.
‘All findings from the investigation will be summarised in the final report. The production of the final outbreak report from the multiagency Incident Management Team may take up to six months.’ In July, FSS first linked the outbreak to a batch of Errington’s Dunsyre Blue, made from unpasteurised milk and eaten throughout the UK. It was recalled.
Two months later, the watchdog issued a blanket ban on the sale of all cheese made by the family firm after bacteria was detected in ‘a number’ of products.
Some accused the watchdog of being heavy-handed. Hugh Pennington, Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology at Aberdeen University, accused FSS of taking ‘draconian action’. Mr Errington, who commissioned his own tests, remains confident his cheese is safe and claims he has never seen evidence to the contrary.
Commenting on lifting the order to destroy produce made by Errington Cheese, an FSS spokesman said: ‘As the product withdrawal concerning products produced by Errington Cheese Ltd remains in place, Food Standards Scotland is satisfied that there is no current risk to public health.
‘As part of ongoing legal proceedings we have asked local authorities in Scotland to suspend in the interim, the part of the “Food Alert For Action” solely in respect of the destruction of the withdrawn products.’
‘We have had to lay off all our staff’