The measures taken in December by the French authorities – withdrawal from the market, recall and banning the export of Lactalis products contaminated with Salmonella Agona – will significantly reduce the risk of spread of infection but vigilance remains the watchword as new cases of Salmonella Agona may well appear, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
That is the key point in the joint report the two European organisations published on 17 January which provides an overview of the outbreak of Salmonella Agona infection in several countries (see EUROPE 11939).
EFSA and ECDC recommend that the competent member state authorities continue to share information on their epidemiological, microbiological and environmental investigations and make the relevant notifications through the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) and the early warning response system (EWRS).
To prevent cases of infection in both infants and those caring for them, EFSA and ECDC recommend, further, that member states consider providing the public with the following information: not to use any of the infant formulas associated with this outbreak, to wash hands before and after preparing bottles, not to prepare bottles in advance and to discard the contents of bottles prepared if not consumed within two hours.
The report confirms that the recalled products had been distributed in 13 EU countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom) and 54 third countries. As of 11 January, the outbreak had affected over 40 infants under one year of age (39 in France, 1 in Spain and 1 in Greece), the report states. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)