Salmonella alarm in Europe: 306 people infected in Belgium after consuming contaminated eggs. Recall also in Luxembourg and Italy among the informed countries Italy has also been informed of the salmonella alarm that triggered a new egg recall in Europe. In Belgium, at least 306 people have been in…
Salmonella alarm in Europe: 306 people infected in Belgium after consuming contaminated eggs. Recall also in Luxembourg and Italy among the informed countries
Italy has also been informed of the salmonella alarm that triggered a new egg recall in Europe. In Belgium, at least 306 people have been infected with the bacteria after consuming contaminated eggs. The balance was announced by the Belgian Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety (Afsca).
The salmonellosis epidemic has been linked to eggs produced by Laerco, a company based in Geel, in northern Belgium. The presence of salmonella had already been identified at the end of April and in May a first large-scale recall was triggered, with the withdrawal of all eggs produced in the plant.
The contamination is spreading
At first, the contamination seemed to be confined to one of the four farms of the company. But the number of new cases of salmonellosis has not decreased as expected.
New laboratory tests have therefore detected the presence of the bacteria also in a second farm. At that point Afsca decided to block the entire farm and launch a new campaign to withdraw potentially contaminated eggs.
The eggs in supermarkets
The affected products were distributed through several major retail chains, including Colruyt, Delhaize, Aldi and Carrefour.
The preventive recall has also been extended to Luxembourg, while Afsca has informed several other European countries that may be affected by the distribution of eggs.
These include the Netherlands, France, Italy and Portugal.
For now, the alert does not necessarily mean that all affected eggs have been sold in Italy, but confirms that Italian authorities have been informed within the European food safety alert system.
What is salmonella
Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause salmonellosis, an intestinal infection that can manifest itself with diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. The symptoms appear generally after a few hours or days from the ingestion of the contaminated food.
Raw or undercooked eggs are among the foods that can transmit the bacteria. For this reason, in the presence of an official recall, it is essential to check affected packaging and lots and not consume the indicated products.
