Nov 29th, 2023
3 mins
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently published a Rapid Outbreak Assessment regarding three clusters of Salmonella enteritidis ST11 infections linked to chicken meat and chicken meat products.
Between January-October 2023, there have been 335 reported cases related to the outbreak across 14 EU/EEA countries, the UK and USA and they have affected all age groups. Most interviewed cases reported consumption of chicken meat, including chicken kebabs. Nine cases in three countries were hospitalised and one case in Austria died, highlighting the potential for severe and fatal infections from this outbreak. Traceability information revealed that three Salmonella‐contaminated kebabs shared several Polish food business operators.
Given the information collected, contaminated chicken kebab and chicken meat are the plausible vehicles of the human infections reported in these three clusters. However, in the absence of conclusive microbiological evidence and comprehensive traceability, the role of the identified final producers, their meat suppliers, and the possible involvement of other food business operators as sources of the infections could not be confirmed or excluded.
It is expected that new cases are likely to occur, and the assessment recommends further investigations to identify the potential locations within the chicken meat production chain where the contamination may have occurred.
You can read the report in full here
