EXPERTS in E coli say the Scottish Government must consider adding warning labels to unpasteurised cheese products following a fatal outbreak of the food bug which was linked to a gourmet blue cheese.
Scientists from the Roslin Institute and Edinburgh Veterinary School said the public were not widely aware of the dangers to children and elderly from consuming "raw milk" items. They added that hazard warning labels on packaging "could be a step in the right direction" to protect public health.
It comes after an outbreak of the potentially deadly E. coli strain, O157, between July and mid-September 2016. Seventeen people were hospitalised and a three-year-old girl died.
An multi-agency investigation chaired by Health Protection Scotland and including bodies such as Food Standards Scotland and South Lanarkshire Council, subsequently blamed the outbreak on a contaminated batch of unpasteurised Dunsyre Blue cheese, manufactured by Lanarkshire-based manufacturer Errington Cheese. The firm has always denied its products were the source of the bug, but it has now voluntarily introduced routine tests for E. coli O157 at an extra cost to production.
Writing in the Herald today, Dr Deborah Hoyle of Edinburgh University's School of Veterinary Studies and Professor David Gally of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh - both specialists in E. coli - said "regulation and responsibility" were required amid a growth in demand for minimally-processed artisan products such as unpasteurised cheese.
They state: "Labelling raw milk products more clearly with a warning of potential hazard to specific groups, could be a step in the right direction. We advocate that the risks contingent with unpasteurised milk products should be more widely publicised."
Around 10 per cent of cattle in Scotland test positive for E. coli O157 at any one time. The scientists suggested that Scottish cheese manufacturers could "micro-filter" their milk - a very fine filtration process which removes more bacteria than pasteurization - as an extra safeguard.
The bacteria does not pose a significant threat to healthy people, but young children, the frail elderly, and people with cancer or suppressed immune systems, are more vulnerable.
In the United States, unpasteurised cheeses such as Brie and Roquefort are banned on health grounds. Dr Hoyle said that was too extreme for Europe, but said a public health campaign similar to the 'Pink Chicken' drive - which highlighted the risk of campylobacter from undercooked barbecue meat - would be useful.
She said: "I think a lot of people aren’t aware of illness that might be transmitted through cheese. Labelling is an important way of raising awareness, and at the moment there isn’t that sort of labelling on cheese.
“But even if we don’t go down the route of labelling - because obviously there are all the French cheeses that we import which might not be pasteurised – having that public conversation means that people can make their own decision about whether or not to buy product based on whether they’re going to feed it to a small child or someone in hospital.”
A spokesman for Food Standards Scotland said that due to ongoing legal proceedings between Errington Cheese and South Lanarkshire Council in connection to the 2016 E. coli outbreak they were unable to comment at the current time.
No one at Fine Cheesemakers of Scotland, which represents producers, was available to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel