Sweden provides details on outbreaks in 2021
Sweden has noted an increase in foodborne outbreaks and illnesses in 2021, but levels were still below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
The number of outbreaks reported to the Swedish Food Agency in 2020 and 2021 was affected by measures taken during the pandemic.
There were 251 reports of suspected or confirmed food poisoning outbreaks involving 1,467 illnesses. Both the number of notifications and the number of cases increased compared to 160 outbreaks and 1,314 cases in 2020 but are still lower than the historical average.
When several Coronavirus-related restrictions were lifted in the fall of 2021, the number of cases increased. Sixteen major eruptions occurred during this season.
Eleven people have been hospitalized in seven outbreaks and one person died during a Campylobacter epidemic that infected eight people.
Outbreak causes
For 213 notifications and 843 cases, the cause was unknown. Bacteria were blamed for 26 outbreaks and 343 cases, followed by viruses in 12 events with 194 cases, and other agents such as histamine or lectins in seven reports with 52 cases.
Norovirus caused the most with 11 outbreaks and 189 cases, followed by Salmonella with eight outbreaks and 179 cases. Norovirus decreased in 2020 but Salmonella increased.
Listeria was behind five outbreaks with 14 infections and Campylobacter caused five with 23 cases. Four outbreaks with 78 infections were due to Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Cryptosporidium affected 23 people and an outbreak of Yersinia enterocolitica sickened 16.
Four other outbreaks that also had cases in previous years were reported. In a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak, 17 people have been affected since 2019 with an unknown source. Tahini and halva have sickened 41 people since 2019.
Food categories with the most reported illnesses were vegetables with 210 cases and seafood such as oysters, mussels and fish products with 151 patients.
Three histamine outbreaks were linked to tuna from Southeast Asia and frozen raspberries from Bosnia were behind one incident. A salmonella outbreak was traced to alfalfa sprouts whose seeds came from Italy and an outbreak caused by Yersinia enterocolitica was linked to iceberg lettuce from Spain. The Cryptosporidium outbreak was caused by kale produced in Sweden.
In 55 percent of the reports, and for 41 percent of the cases, the source of infection was food contaminated in facilities such as restaurants, cafeterias or cooking kitchens in schools.
The main contributing factor was “infection/poor hygiene among staff”, which was initiated in 18 of 52 reports. This means that people who handled food were carriers or did not follow hygiene practices. The second most common factor was “incorrect storage with regard to time and temperature”, which was listed in 15 reports.
Inspection results
Another report has found that food inspections are largely back to normal after a downturn due to the peak of the covid-19 pandemic.
Controls of food and food companies involve several different authorities including the Swedish Food Agency, County Administrative Boards and municipal control authorities.
The number of inspections in manufacturing, distribution and sales has increased after the sharp decline during the 2020 pandemic. A greater proportion of high-risk facilities have also been inspected.
However, there are areas for improvement. In primary production, for example, local authorities did not reach the target of 1,000 checks. In 2021, only 72 percent of such checks were carried out, down from 78 percent the year before.
There are still large differences in how often checks are carried out and how detected deficiencies in food companies, producers and distributors are handled by authorities. There are also authorities that finance food control in the wrong way, the report found.
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