Food scandal: One dead – report shows frightening disgust conditions

Created: 04/16/2022, 22:36

By: Christina Denk

Three people fell ill, one died: A fruit and vegetable company is said to have delivered contaminated cucumbers to a hospital.

The operation was not checked for two years.

Darmstadt - In Hesse, a control gap has led to a food scandal.

A fruit and vegetable store that also supplied sliced ​​cucumbers to hospitals had not been checked for two years.

The lack of hygiene in the company was not discovered.

In the period between October 2021 and January 2022, four people are said to have contracted listeriosis from food contaminated with germs, one of them died, reports Die

.

At least two of those affected were probably infected during a hospital stay.

In mid-February, the Hessian authorities became aware of the current food scandal.

The public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt is investigating against the company.

Food scandal: report speaks of "standing puddles, rat droppings and mold"

The newspaper has an expert opinion from the Hessian task force on food safety, which documents the case.

She accuses the company, whose cucumbers also ended up in hospital salads, of lack of hygiene.

There is talk of "standing puddles, rat droppings and mold in production" as well as "lack of cleaning plans and insufficient internal controls".

There were also structural defects, such as the lack of hygiene locks and insufficient water drainage, which should have been noticed earlier.

The task force states that "it was not possible to produce safe food in the condition found."

listeriosis

In principle, listeriosis is a 

.

In addition to some animal products, as is often the case in sausage or Listeria in cheese, Listeria is also often found on plant-based foods, for example pre-cut salads - according to the RKI, contamination should have occurred during production.

Infections caused by Listeria can cause various disease progressions.

This can lead to gastrointestinal inflammation associated with diarrhea.

If the course is severe, septicemia can occur, which can affect various organ systems, including the central nervous system, in the form of brain or meningitis.

Without timely therapy, the mortality rate is 20 percent and higher, according to the

.

Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are particularly at risk.

Investigations by the authorities found genetic similarities between the germs from the dealer's production and those of the sick people.

The company apparently did not comment on the scandal when asked.

There are strict regulations on food safety in Germany.

Electron micrographs of listeria (Listeria monocytogenes) on the surface of a dendritic cell.

© Manfred Rohde / dpa

Food scandal: Two years without controls - inspectors used differently

A lack of checks in the last two years is probably partly responsible for the scandal.

Normally one or two exams are scheduled each year.

In this case, the district admitted that it had not checked the operation in accordance with the regulations.

As the report shows, in 2021, during the corona pandemic, only around 45 percent of the prescribed controls could be carried out by the veterinary office in Groß-Gerau.

Several food inspectors and an official veterinarian were partly used for other tasks during the pandemic, such as contact tracing in corona cases.

Staff shortages in food offices were already considered a problem before the pandemic.

At the request of

district administrator Thomas Will (SPD) and health department head Walter Astheimer (Greens) regretted that “there was a control gap that could endanger people’s health and lives”.

There was also a recent recall scandal at Ferrero – due to salmonella.