One person has died in a Listeria outbreak in Denmark linked to a brand of fish cakes.
Since mid-July, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has registered seven patients who have become ill due to the same type of Listeria monocytogenes.
SSI, Fødevarestyrelsen (the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration) and the DTU Food Institute investigated the outbreak and identified fish cakes as the cause. The products have been recalled from stores and consumers.
Patients are between 33 and 89 years old and live across the country. Six are women and one is a man. All of the sick people were hospitalized and one died within 30 days of detecting the Listeria bacteria.
“When comparing bacteria from patients and environmental samples from the manufacturer, we found that the bacteria are exactly the same. Combined with the fact that patients stated that they ate fish cakes, this shows that this is where the infection came from,” said Luise Müller, epidemiologist at SSI.
SSI was responsible for whole-genome sequencing of isolates from sick people and for interviews with patients.
Previous incident
Two diseases with the same type of Listeria monocytogenes have been registered outside Denmark. One sick person ate Danish fish cakes from the same manufacturer that were sold in a local supermarket chain.
The manufacturer Jeka Fish has recalled several batches of fish cakes and has also taken more measures against Listeria. Listeria monocytogenes has been found in the production environment and there is a suspicion of Listeria in the products.
Nearly 10 different products are affected by the recall, some dating back to mid-November. They were sold in Lidl and Coop stores, as well as in Coop-operated retail chains such as Kvickly, SuperBrugsen, Dagli’Brugsen, Brugsen and 365discount.
The Listeria type of the current outbreak was also found in fish products from the same company in 2022.
From August to December 2022, eleven people were infected with Listeria. Among them were four men and seven women. The patients included one child and ten adults.
Jeka Fish said it had worked with food and health authorities to contain the outbreak and implement additional safety measures in the production environment. Fishcake production was back at full capacity in January 2023. The company estimated that the outbreak affected its 2022 results due to direct costs related to the outbreak and lost revenue from the period when production was shut down.
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