Cook/Chill Catering

HC Deb 28 November 1988 vol 142 cc145-6W

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether Mr. Arthur Pinegar, principal microbiologist in the public health laboratory in Leeds, is also operating a private laboratory undertaking the evaluation and monitoring of cook/chill catering.

Mrs. Currie

Mr. Pinegar has advised the public health laboratory service board that the laboratory with which he is connected in a private capacity is not currently involved in work on cook/chill catering.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health why his Department's new guidelines on cook/chill catering, which were to have been published in August, are not yet ready for publication.

Mrs. Currie

Because we need more time. They will be published when they are ready.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the microbiological studies of food produced by the cook/chill process being undertaken by the public health laboratory service have included the assessment of listeria.

Mrs. Currie

Yes. Preliminary work on the growth and survival of listeria monocytogenes in foods prepared in cook/chill catering have been undertaken by the public health laboratory service (PHLS). Further studies are in progress in the PHLS which include examination of meals produced in NHS hospital cook/chill catering systems for the presence of this organism. Further work is planned.