THE cheesemakers at the centre of a major investigation into last year’s E.coli outbreak that featured the death of a three-year-old girl in Dunbartonshire last night queried the methodology that blamed the infection on cheese produced by their company.
The inquiry into the death is still ongoing, though the initial sudden death report has been given to the procurator-fiscal at Dumbarton.
Dunsyre Blue produced by Errington Cheese of Lanarkshire was yesterday blamed for the outbreak by the incident management team comprising health and food safety experts from the NHS, Food Standards Scotland, and local councils.
A report issued by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) it was stated: “This incident management team (IMT) report presents the investigations and conclusions in relation to an outbreak of E.coli 0157 PT21/28 in the summer of 2016. A total of 26 cases were identified in this outbreak, which occurred in two phases, firstly in July and then again in September.
“The multi-agency IMT met 11 times between July 22 and September 5 to investigate and manage an outbreak of 20 laboratory confirmed cases of E.coli 0157 PT21/28 infection with the same unique molecular profile, with onset dates between July 2 and July 29. The IMT concluded that the source of the outbreak was consumption of an unpasteurised cows’ milk cheese, Dunsyre Blue, and a voluntary recall of the suspected batches was undertaken by the food business on July 29.”
The IMT report added: “Extensive investigations concluded that the source of the outbreak was the consumption of Dunsyre Blue. This conclusion was based on evidence from epidemiological and food chain investigations and supported by microbiological evidence.” However, the report also states: “The fact that not all primary cases could be directly linked to Dunsyre Blue was not unexpected and similar to other food related outbreaks.”
The report added: “Not all those infected will have developed symptoms or developed symptoms severe enough to seek medical attention and subsequent laboratory identification. It follows that the 26 cases identified during the outbreak investigation is likely to be an underestimate of the true number of cases.”
The IMT admitted, however, that it had been unable to discover the strain of E.coli in the Errington cheeses.
The report stated: “While testing of cheese did not isolate the outbreak strain, STEC (shiga toxin-producing e-coli) organisms and stx negative E.coli O157 were detected in cheese produced by ECL, demonstrating that pathogens could enter and survive the cheese production process.”
Geoff Ogle, Food Standards Scotland chief executive, said: “Food Standards Scotland is satisfied that the evidence and conclusions presented in this report fully support and justify the decisions that we took to protect consumers.”
Supporters of Errington Cheese pointed to the fact that only Edinburgh of the four laboratories used for testing found E.coli strains. Those samples examined in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Tayside all tested negative.
A local source said: “Much of the evidence they have produced is statistical and they have admitted to negative findings for E.coli, so this report raises more questions than it answers.”
Errington Cheese stated: “We believe that more detailed investigations into the cause of the outbreak are needed. This is particularly in relation to those cases where HPS were unable to find any direct link to Dunsyre Blue.
“We call on them once again, as we did in August 2016, to let us have access to the evidence relating to their investigations.
“There is no microbiological evidence that Dunsyre Blue caused the outbreak – all they have concluded is that raw milk cheese carries a small risk of STEC which is already well recorded in scientific literature; there has been no highly pathogenic STEC found in any of our products, nor anything found linking our cheese to the outbreak. This is fact.
“The report confirms our fears that blue cheese was the only food stuff considered from an early stage in the investigation. Salad was also mentioned but there is no evidence given of any investigation of salads.
“We appreciate that FSS has a difficult role to play and must give priority to protecting the public and we accept that recalling the two initial batches was appropriate under the precautionary principle. However, we believe that once samples of these two batches of Dunsyre Blue tested negative for E.coli 0157, the incident management team should have looked at other food stuffs and potential sources of transmission.”
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