E.coli 0157

HL Deb 20 July 1998 vol 592 c75WA

The Countess of Mar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

In how many instances the 199 E.coli 0157 cases, which occurred in the first 18 weeks of 1998, reported in the Communicable Disease Report of the Public Health Laboratory Service, were attributed to a food product; and on how many occasions the Department of Health's Food Incident Control Team was involved where infection was attributed to food. [HL2652]

Baroness Jay of Paddington

Of the reports ofEscherichia coli 0157 received to date by the Public Health Laboratory Service's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre for the first 18 weeks of 1998, two incidents, involving three cases, have been associated through epidemiological and microbiological evidence with the consumption of specified food products. The specified foods were unpasteurised milk and cheese made from unpasteurised milk. The figures are provisional to date. The Department of Health's Food Incident Control Team was involved in dealing with the second incident, which concerned cheese originating from R. A. Duckett & Co. Ltd.