In 2022, a Salmonella outbreak in the Marche area made more than 60 people sick. This was a major food safety issue in Italy. A new paper in the Italian Journal of Food Safety sheds more light on the case. It shows that the outbreak was linked to eating porchetta, a famous spicy roasted pork product.
A Rise In Illnesses Spread By Food
In 2022, Italy had a total of 175 foodborne events that affected 1,604 people, sent 303 to the hospital, and killed 15. A lot of these cases were linked to Salmonella, which was found to be the main cause. Twelve of the 32 cases that were caused by meat were directly linked to pork products.
From July to September 2022, the Fermo region’s health officials got many reports of illnesses that might have been caused by food. As per the accounts from the Hygiene and Public Health Service of Fermo and nearby places, these illnesses may have been linked to a food item.
It was the Fermo Local Health Unit’s Animal Based Food Hygiene Service (ABFHS) job to look into where the infections were coming from.
Figuring Out the Source: Porchetta
Based on the study, all 64 people who were affected by the outbreak had the same signs of a Salmonella infection. Salmonella was found in feces samples from the patients, which was confirmed by tests in the lab.
More talks with the people who were affected showed that many of them had eaten porchetta, an Italian dish of roasted pork, which they had bought or eaten in different places but all from the same processing plant in the Fermo area.
The 64 patients were mostly men (33 of them), and 26 of them were children between the ages of 5 and 14. Because the infections were so bad, at least 29 people had to go to the hospital.
Inspections And Sampling Of The Environment
The ABFHS did thorough checks of the food processing business and two stores that were connected to it. Three porchetta samples and 23 outdoor swabs were taken during these checks to test for Salmonella. Salmonella was found in four of the outdoor samples and one porchetta sample, which told us a lot.
The dirty swabs came from areas that had not been cleaned before they came in touch with the roasted pork. These included a board for moving cooked porchetta at the processing plant, a Teflon cutting board for cutting porchetta at one store, and a wooden cutting board and knife at a different store. The porchetta sample that was tainted was taken from one of these stores.
What Was Found At The Processing Plant
Several very important problems were found when the food making plant was inspected. Structures and cleanliness were not up to par, and the company did not handle food safety measures well. To be more specific, the plant did not follow the rules for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), which are meant to keep food safe.
Crucial steps, like cooking and freezing, were not seen as critical control points (CCPs) that need close supervision, but as general good manufacturing practices (GMPs). In the company’s HACCP plan, cold storage was the only CCP that was named.
However, the experts stressed that the right cooking time and temperature are very important to make sure that the end product is safe by getting rid of harmful pathogens like Salmonella. Sticking to good cooking and chilling practices without strict controls is not enough to protect against microbiological dangers.
Inspections Of Retail Stores
It was found that one shop met cleanliness standards, but the other one had a number of problems. The check showed that cleanliness standards were not being met and that product storage rules were not being followed, which probably led to the contamination.
Fixing The Problems And Starting To Make Things Again
Because of what they found, the local food safety service made changes at the processing plant and the shops that were involved. To make room for these changes, production of porchetta was briefly stopped.
After about six weeks, a follow-up check showed that cleanliness and safety standards had improved a lot. This meant that production could start up again.
What I Learned
The Salmonella outbreak in the Marche region is a stark warning of how important it is to follow strict rules for food safety. The study showed that food companies need to follow HACCP rules correctly and keep a close eye on all the important steps in the food production process.
Food makers can better protect customers from foodborne illnesses and stop outbreaks like the one in Italy by treating cooking and chilling as CCPs instead of just GMPs.
This case shows how important regulatory control is and how important it is to keep watching to protect public health. It also shows how important it is to act quickly and thoroughly when looking into food safety problems so they can be fixed before they cause a lot of harm.
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