Figures just released by the Food Standards Agency show that there are estimated to be about 2.4 million cases of food poisoning a year in the UK; more than twice as many as the estimated figure in 2009. This does not mean that cases of food poisoning have increased; rather, it is a reflection of more sensitive testing for foodborne illness.
In summary, the new studies show that:
These findings are significant for practitioners in the field; whereas some gastroenterologists have not previously been prepared to acknowledge that norovirus is often spread by food, these studies show most emphatically that it is. Furthermore, as science develops, it is becoming clearer that many previously idiopathic cases of gastroenteritis are in fact caused by foodborne pathogens. We can predict that this trend is likely to continue in the coming years as the FSA carries out further work on the causes of gastrointestinal illness.
It would appear that in many cases viral illness can be, and is, spread by food; and that its transmission can be prevented. This is obviously doubly important now that a poorly understood virus is sweeping the globe.
You heard it here first: the solution to the Viral Crisis is to avoid lettuce. Happily I’ve been doing that for years.
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