A picture taken on March 24, 2006 in Copenhagen shows a man about to eat a Danish sliced rolled meat speciality called Rullepoelse. Since June, 12 Danes have died from bacteria listeria, which has been traced to food company Jørn A. Rullepølser A/S in Hedehusene, the State Serum Institute (SSI) said.
AFP/Reuters/Copenhagen
A listeria outbreak at a small meat producer outside Copenhagen has killed 12 people in Denmark over the past few months, the country’s food safety regulator said yesterday.
“The company has therefore been closed and all its products are being withdrawn,” the ministry of food, agriculture and fisheries said in a statement.
The agency’s infectious diseases unit had notified it in June that a listeria outbreak could be underway, and on Monday the source was identified as a deli meats producer in Hedehusene, around 30km west of Copenhagen.
The bacteria had been found in a batch of popular type of cold cut called “Rullepolse”, which means rolled sausage in Danish, which was pulled from shelves in May.
Listeria can linger for weeks even in cold temperatures like a refrigerator.
A person can get sick up to two months after consuming a contaminated product, and infections typically cause fever and muscle aches.
The State Serum Institute (SSI), an infectious disease research institute under the Danish health ministry, said 20 people had been infected since September 2013, with 15 of those cases recorded since June.
It said 12 people had died in the outbreak – the first on September 13 and the latest just a few days ago on August 9.
The government only asked SSI to investigate a possible outbreak on June 26 and it took more than a month to find the source – manufacturer Jørn A. Rullepølser A/S in Hedehusene, 30km west of Copenhagen.
“We found out last night, when we were contacted by the Food Administration, who immediately ordered that all production and sales be stopped,” company official Christina Lowies Jensen told television news station TV2. “This is completely incomprehensible for us. It is a very complex case and we don’t understand what went wrong.”
The highly popular Rullepolse is typically made of flattened meat stuffed with spices and herbs, which is then rolled up and sliced as a cold cut.
