Following the outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in Eastern Germany, on 28 September, the federal government and the state governments decided to bundle investigative activities on the food side with a coordination group (Task Force). The work of the Task Force was managed and coordinated by the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL). It included experts of the affected Federal States Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Hesse as well as of the BVL, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Abstract

The Task Force on Food and Feed Safety (in short: Task Force) started work on Saturday, 29 September 2012. After sorting all present facts of the outbreak event, it decided on the strategy to be taken in clarifying the food-related side of the outbreak. In order to identify the foods at the source of the outbreak, it was decided to make risk-based establishment controls in catering kitchens and distribution points (canteens), analyse the flow of food products, and analyse food samples in the laboratory. In addition to that, information and data were to be obtained from main office of the Hessian catering company through the representative of the Land (state) Hesse. The Task Force developed recommendations for action regarding the information to be obtained through establishment controls and analysis of food samples. Also, the Task Force provided the Laender (German Federal States) with data reporting forms for reporting back trace-back data and laboratory results. In this way, the food control authorities of the five Laender concerned had been provided with all information necessary for a co-ordinated approach by the morning of Monday, 01 October 2012.

In the framework of outbreak investigations, the Laender laboratories analysed 796 food and environmental samples (state of reporting as on 08 October, 2012, 01.00 p. m.). Fifteen kitchens were identified as being linked with the outbreak. These kitchens had delivered meals to a total of 978 canteens (schools and childcare facilities) in calendar week 39.288 of these institutions were affected by an increased incidence of disease. Thirteen of the 15 kitchens in question belong to the catering company. The trace-back investigations showed that 14 of the 15 kitchens had processed frozen strawberries from one and the same batch. The strawberries were prepared and handed over in different form, for instance, as a stew (compote), or as a desert ingredient. The suspicious strawberry batch (consisting of two sub-batches, only one of which had been distributed to kitchens) originated from the company a trading company in Saxony. The company had imported 44 tons of frozen strawberries in 10-kg packages directly from China via the port of Hamburg. An official laboratory analysis performed in Saxony-Anhalt upon request by the Land Saxony finally produced evidence of a genogroup-II Norovirus in one 10-kg packages of the suspicious frozen strawberries on 08 October 2012. This, together with the epidemiological studies contributed by the Robert Koch Institute, clarified the causes of the outbreak of acute vomiting and diarrhoea.

In order to stop the outbreak, the suspicious strawberry batch was immediately blocked and remaining amounts withdrawn from all customers supplied. The Land Saxony sent BVL an RASFF notification which has meanwhile been notified by the European Commission.

The Task Force compiled food epidemiological findings raised by the Laender in a database, making them available for further scientific analysis of the event.

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