Latest news with #foodcontamination
The Independent
32 minutes ago
- Health
- The Independent
196 people fell sick during E coli outbreak linked to salad
Health officials have revealed there was a 26 per cent surge in shiga toxin E coli (STEC) infections in 2024, reaching 2,544 cases, partly driven by an outbreak linked to salad. The outbreak resulted in two deaths, 196 cases, and 126 hospitalisations. Major supermarkets and food manufacturers recalled numerous sandwich, wrap, and salad products in June 2024 due to contamination fears. Of the total cases in 2024, there were seven deaths, and children aged 1 to 4 years were disproportionately affected. UKHSA and the Food Standards Agency are collaborating to understand the reasons behind the rise in STEC cases and implement public health protection measures.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Health chiefs issue urgent warning after detecting surge in deadly gut bug linked to bowel cancer - faeces contaminated salad blamed
Dangerous gut infections caused by E. coli bacteria soared by more than a quarter in England last year—with one major outbreak traced to contaminated salad leaves, health officials have warned. According to new figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), 2,544 culture-confirmed cases of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) were reported last year—a 26 per cent increase compared to 2,018 cases in 2023. These included 564 cases of STEC serotype O157—the strain historically linked to the most severe illness. Some studies have suggested that chronic exposure to certain toxin-producing strains of E. coli, including STEC, may play a role in bowel cancer development—though more research is needed to confirm a direct link. Typically, STEC bacteria causes gastroenteritis, with symptoms ranging from mild to bloody diarrhoea, stomach cramps, vomiting and dehydration. In severe cases, they can lead to haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)—a life-threatening complication that affects the kidneys. Food can become contaminated with STEC through contact with animal faeces during farming, slaughter, or processing. It can also occur if produce like salad leaves is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. The increase in 2024 was partly driven by a major outbreak linked to contaminated salad leaves, which resulted in 293 cases across the UK, including 196 in England. Of those affected, 126 required hospital care, 11 developed HUS and two died. More to follow. UKHSA Dr Gauri Godbole stomach bug expert said: 'It is important for people to take steps to prevent infection. 'Rarely STEC can progress to cause kidney failure and life-threatening illness, particularly in young children and elderly. 'Please consult your GP or healthcare professional if you have blood in your stools or severe dehydration and continue to hydrate yourself.' More to follow.
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown filled in as cook at childcare centre just days before police charges
Warning: This story contains details of alleged child sex offences which may distress some audience members. A Melbourne childcare worker filled in as a cook and prepared meals for children just days before police charged him with contaminating food with his bodily fluids, along with dozens of sex offences. The ABC can reveal that in May this year Joshua Dale Brown, who is accused of offending against eight children, temporarily worked in the kitchen at Papilio Early Learning in Essendon. The details have been corroborated by a parent at Papilio Essendon who said they noticed Mr Brown in the centre's kitchen, which was unusual because he normally worked as an educator. "I said, 'Oh what are you doing in there,' and he said, 'The chef's on holidays so I'm doing the cooking,'" recalled the parent, who cannot be identified. "This guy was actually doing the cooking for the whole centre," the parent said. Mr Brown is now facing more than 70 charges, including recklessly contaminating goods to cause alarm or anxiety, dating back to his time at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, in Melbourne's western suburbs, between April 2022 and January 2023. He was charged on May 12, with authorities revealing the allegations to the public last week. The allegations prompted authorities to urge the families of more than 1,200 children to arrange tests for sexually transmitted diseases. Some families are being asked to test for gonorrhoea and chlamydia, while others are also being asked to test for syphilis. However, parents have raised concerns that their children have been identified for different testing regimes than others who they said were at the same centres at the same times. About 200 parents whose children went to childcare centres where Mr Brown worked attended a meeting on Thursday night held by law firm Arnold Thomas & Becker, which is investigating potential legal action. "They just don't know if their child has been impacted," an Arnold Thomas & Becker spokesperson said. The Health Department has compiled an official list of the 20 centres that Mr Brown worked at but multiple parents have told the ABC that the details are not only incomplete but also directly contradicted by emails on a platform called Storypark, which some childcare operators use to give families daily updates via pictures and videos. The official list said Mr Brown worked at Papilio Essendon from February 17 to May 9 this year, but the parent who saw him in the centre's kitchen said he recalls seeing him months earlier as well. "I remember him dressing for Halloween, so as far back as October," the parent said. "I've got pictures of him doing activities right next to my child," they said. "It was making me sick going through photos on Storypark because I wanted to actually validate the dates he was actually there." The parent's child has since returned negative tests for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, but they are anxious there has been no update on a criminal investigation into possible offending at Papilio Essendon from police, who said they were investigating it as a matter of priority. "It's just like a black cloud hanging over our heads," they said. "That's our main source of frustration right now … we don't even know what the allegation is at our centre." Parents at other centres have also been scouring the Storypark app to try and figure out if Mr Brown was working on the days their children were in childcare. According to information provided by the Victorian government, Mr Brown worked at Aussie Kindies Early Learning in Sunbury between August 13 and August 21 last year. But two parents of children who attended Aussie Kindies in Sunbury have told the ABC that centre management posted three additional dates on which Mr Brown worked at the centre to Storypark, but then deleted the information. In the deleted post, management said the additional dates had been "cross checked" with the sign-in system used for employees across Affinity Education, which owns the centre. However, the ABC understand that one of the dates given in the now-deleted post is incorrect. Both Papilio in Essendon and Aussie Kindies in Sunbury are run by childcare giant Affinity. Affinity last week told the ABC it was reviewing its employment dates for Mr Brown. It is understood it has provided new information to Victoria police. Affinity also responded to reports from parents that Storypark posts featuring Mr Brown had been deleted from the app. A spokesperson confirmed some images had been removed at the request of families. "All images have been shared with police. The images have been archived, not permanently deleted," a spokesperson said. Parents have also told the ABC they have been confused by advice given by the Department of Health, including initial emails about the allegations and advice given on the official hotline set up for families. Families initially received advice there was no evidence their children were among Mr Brown's alleged victims, but were later told to get infectious disease testing. On the Tuesday morning of the announcement, the dedicated hotline for parents and guardians was overwhelmed with calls and waiting times blew out to as much as two hours. One parent whose child attended Ninos Early Learning in Point Cook — where Mr Brown worked for about 18 months between 2017 and 2019 — said that the person who answered the hotline told them their child did not need to be tested, but also said they could go to their GP for testing. The Victorian government has established a webpage with information for affected families. Information, including details of the government's dedicated hotline, can be found here. Last Friday, Premier Jacinta Allan and Victoria Police said an updated list of dates and places where Mr Brown worked was being prepared. On Thursday police said there was no estimate of when an update would come through. "We appreciate that this is an incredibly difficult and distressing time for families," a police spokesperson said. "However, we need to ensure that the information we provide is correct. We do not want to further panic families and send children for unnecessary testing." The Health Department has been contacted for comment.
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
More than 200 children found with high lead levels after kindergarten in China uses paint as food colouring, authorities say
File photo. Photo: Photo / 123RF By Simone McCarthy and Joyce Jiang , CNN More than 200 kindergarten students in northwestern China were found to have abnormal blood lead levels after kitchen staff used paint as food colouring, authorities said, in a case that's stoked outrage in a country long plagued by food safety scandals. Eight people, including the principal of the private kindergarten that the children attended, have been detained "on suspicion of producing toxic and harmful food," according to a report released Tuesday by Tianshui city government, as cited by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. The principal and a financial backer of the school had allowed kitchen staff at the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten to use paint pigments to colour the children's food, leading to contamination, according to the report, which followed a days-long but ongoing probe into the cases. Of the 251 students enrolled at the kindergarten, 233 were found to have abnormal levels of lead in their blood, the report found. The children were undergoing medical treatment with 201 of them currently in hospital, authorities said. Medical evaluation on the effects of their exposure, which can cause long-term and developmental harm, were not yet made public. Local media cited a paediatrics professor as saying aspects of the case suggest there could be chronic lead poisoning, meaning exposure over a period of more than three months. During the investigation, two food samples from the kindergarten - a red date steamed breakfast cake and a sausage corn roll - were found to have lead levels more than 2,000 times the national food safety standard for contamination, according to figures cited in the investigation report. The paint was also seized by authorities and found to contain lead - and the packaging was clearly labelled as non-edible, the report said. Tianshui's top law enforcement official told CCTV that the principal and his investor had aimed to "attract more enrolment and increase revenue" with the colourful food. CNN has reached out to Heshi Peixin Kindergarten several times for comment. Authorities said they launched the probe on 1 July after becoming aware of reports that children at the school had abnormal blood lead levels. Lead exposure in children can lead to severe consequences, including impacting children's brain development, behaviour and IQ. The government report did not disclose how long the exposure had gone on, with some affected parents interviewed by state media saying they had noticed abnormal signs in their children's health and behaviour for months - and clamoring for more answers about how the exposure happened. "My mind went blank," a mother of one affected student told state media after learning from a hospital in another city that her child had a blood lead level of 528 micrograms per litre - a revelation that came after she said a local department in Tianshui told her the blood levels were normal, according to a report published by outlet China National Radio (CNR). China's National Health Agency classifies "severe lead poisoning" as anything above 450 micrograms per litre. The case has raised all-too-familiar concerns in China about food safety as well as the levels of transparency with which such cases are handled - especially in a system where independent journalism is tightly controlled and officials are under pressure to resolve issues quickly. Earlier this month, after the school conducted tests on the students but did not issue individual results, many parents took their children to Xi'an - a major city a roughly four-hour drive from Tianshui - for testing, according to a report published by a news outlet affiliated with the official People's Daily. "Right now, I'm not thinking about compensation - I just want my child to be healthy," she was quoted as saying. Reports from state-affiliated media found that 70 children who were tested in Xi'an had blood lead levels surpassing the threshold of lead poisoning, with six of those cases exceeding 450 micrograms per liter. According to China's official guidelines, this level is classified as "severe". A full picture of the results from all the students with abnormal levels was not publicly available. One mother told the People's Daily-affiliated outlet that she had been confused by her daughter's constant stomach aches, loss of appetite and behavioural changes over the past six months, which didn't improve after treating her with traditional Chinese medicine. Others expressed skepticism about the results of the official investigation. "The children only eat three-colour jujube steamed cake and corn sausage rolls once or twice a week, how could they be poisoned so seriously?" one mother, who gave her surname Wu, told CNR. "If something like this happened to the children in school, at least give us an explanation. Now there is nothing." Earlier this week, Tianshui's mayor Liu Lijiang said the city would "do everything possible to ensure the children's treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up protection," while vowing to close "loopholes" in Tianshui's public food safety supervision. The case has led to widespread expressions of outrage across Chinese social media, the latest among dozens of high-profile scandals have been reported by local media since the early 2000s. "Serious accountability must be maintained and food safety issues cannot be ignored or slacked off. When it involves the life safety of young children, severe punishment must be imposed," wrote one commentator on the X-like platform Weibo. "Children are the hope of a family. I hope they can recover soon and grow up healthily," said another. Past scandals have also impacted children. In one of the most egregious examples, six infants died and some 300,000 others were sickened by milk powder formula containing the toxic industrial chemical melamine. Several executives found to be responsible for the 2008 case were ultimately handed death sentences, and the tragedy drove deep mistrust of domestic products and food safety in China. Lead poisoning used to be a more widespread issue in China. In 2010, the central government for the first time allocated special funds for heavy metal pollution prevention in response to at least 12 high-profile cases the previous year that left more than 4,000 people with elevated blood lead levels, according to state media. Officials have also moved to tighten food safety regulations in recent years, but pervasive cases have shown more needs to be done in terms of enforcement and to build back public trust, experts say. Improving the food regulatory system calls for "more transparency, more thorough investigation of food safety cases," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and author of the book Toxic Politics: China's Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State. Huang also said a lack of public confidence in the safety systems could evolve into a "trust crisis". - CNN
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Over 200 kindergarten children hospitalised after school serves lead-tainted food
Eight people have been arrested in China after more than 200 children in the northwestern province of Gansu were found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. The children fell ill with symptoms including stomach and leg pain, loss of appetite, and hair loss, according to online media outlets Jimu and The Cover, which cited parents. All the children are pupils at a privately owned kindergarten in Tianshui, Gansu, which was established in 2022 with 251 enrolled students. Investigations revealed lead contamination in food served to the students, China's state broadcaster CCTV reported. Authorities are continuing to investigate the kindergarten's staff, including its principal and legal representative. Reuters was not able to establish contact details for the school or verify the information independently. Food safety has improved in China following a series of scandals, including the 2008 discovery of toxic infant milk, which undermined public trust and consumer confidence. Inspections by regulators in 2022 found safety issues were more common in the catering industry and agricultural products, according to state media reports. CCTV said that investigators tested 223 samples of food from the school. The investigators found that two samples – a red date cake and a corn sausage roll – had lead content of 1052 mg/kg and 1340 mg/kg respectively, far above the official limit of 0.5 mg/kg, the state broadcaster said. The report said that investigators traced the lead to paint whose packaging had clearly marked it as inedible. So far, 201 children have been admitted to hospital and all families are receiving free medical treatment, the broadcaster said, citing local authorities. "The incident has caused physical and mental harm to the children and parents of Peixin kindergarten, and we are very sad. We will learn profound lessons," the broadcaster said, citing local authorities.
