On November 7, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition issued an alert after detecting listeria in the canned chopped sold by DIA and manufactured by the Cárnicas Serrano company. Now he just expanded it to six more products in a case that is beginning to become much more complicated than expected.
First of all: What products are involved?
- Chopped can thin slices: Sliced packaging 150 g from the brand “Nuestra Alacena (DIA)” | Lot number: 252771 with expiration date 11/18/25
- Truffled turkey with pistachios: Sliced packaging of the “Serrano” brand. | Batch number 252771 with expiration date 11/18/2025
- Turkey mortadella with olives: Sliced packaging from the La tabla brand (Aldi) | Lot numbers: 252761 with expiration date 11/17/2025 and 252771 with expiration date 11/18/2025
- Turkey mortadella: Sliced packaging from the “La tabla (Aldi)” brand. | Lot number: 252761 with expiration date 11/17/2025 and 252771 with expiration date 11/18/2025
- Chopped turkey: Sliced packaging of the brand “La tabla (Aldi)” | Lot number: 252761 with expiration date 11/17/2025 and 252771 with expiration date 11/18/2025
- Maxi turkey: Sliced packaging of the brand “La tabla (Aldi)” | Batch number: 252761 and 252763 with expiration date 11/17/2025.
- Maxi York: Sliced packaging of the brand “La tabla (Aldi)” | Batch number and expiration date: 252761 and 252763 with expiration date 11/17/2025.
What has happened? As I said, on November 7 (and through the Coordinated System for Rapid Information Exchange), the AESAN received a alert notification of the Junta de Andalucía regarding the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in a sliced chop sold at DIA Supermarkets.
At the same time that the product was withdrawn, the authorities traced the origin of the outbreak to Cárnicas Serrano, based in Paterna (Valencia). That is where they verified that the company (in addition to having its own brand) manufactured white label sausages. for several supermarkets. That’s why the case has escalated so quickly.
According to the information availablethe distribution has been to the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Community of Madrid, Basque Country and Valencian Community, yes ok “It is not ruled out that there may be redistributions to other communities autonomous”.
What is listeriosis? Listeriosis is an infection caused by listeria monocytogenes. It is an ‘opportunistic’ disease that especially affects pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and, in general, people with a compromised immune system who have eaten contaminated food. Therefore, although generally It is considered a “mild illness” (similar, in many cases, to “gastroenteritis”) in these groups of people can cause quite serious conditions (septicemia or meningitis) and has mortality rates that are between 20 and 30%.
The common problem is that people with invasive listeriosis usually develop symptoms between one and four weeks after eating contaminated food (there have been cases where symptoms begin to appear up to 70 days later). This often makes it difficult to identify contaminated food.
During pregnancy it can cause a mild infection for the pregnant woman but be serious for the baby. The infection usually occurs due to food poisoning but in severe cases it reaches the blood or brain, causing septicemia, meningitis or encephalitis. Like other food infections, listeriosis can cause fever and diarrhea.
How dangerous is the situation? It depends on the level of consumption that the contaminated product reaches. The AESAN recommends that people who have products affected by this alert at home refrain from consuming them. And that is the basic security measure.
If you have consumed any of the products from the affected batches and present symptoms compatible with listeriosis (vomiting, diarrhea or fever), it is recommended to go quickly to a health center.
Actually: no surprise. In 2019, when the great listeria outbreak in Sevillewas published a study on the epidemiological situation of the disease warned about the increase in hospitalizations. Between 1997 and 2015, there were 5,696 listeriosis-related hospitalizations in Spain. An incredibly high number considering that only a few serious cases require hospitalization.
But perhaps the most problematic thing is not that, but the fact that the numbers have not stopped growing in those almost 20 years. In the 1990s, listeria outbreaks were linked to cold cuts, sausages, and other similar products. Today, outbreaks are linked to dairy products, fruits, vegetables and, perhaps related to the upward trend, convenience foods.
Is it a trend? Yes, and a dangerous trend: the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is clear that it is an emerging disease in Europe and that is underdiagnosed. The biggest problem with these infections is that it is not enough to keep the products refrigerated: in slightly contaminated foods, the listeria monocytogenes They can continue to multiply inside the refrigerator. In foods that do not need to be cooked, this is problematic and can only be solved by being especially scrupulous in production processes and food hygiene.
In this sense, Zaida Herrador and her team (2019) concluded that, despite the progress, the growth of the disease indicates that “it is necessary to improve the surveillance of this disease in animals and humans” while continuing to improve its control and “the prevention of cases” (with advice to pregnant women and immunosuppressed people).
Despite the interest that all this generated in 2019, the pandemic made the issue invisible and the consequences are visible.
Image | AESAN
In Xataka | Spain returns to a health alert for listeria: its challenge now is not to fall prey to alarmism
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