Advice on Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) detection in food

Tuesday, 04 June 2019

This report has been produced in response to a Request for Advice to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) Scientific Committee in December 2016 regarding STEC detection in food.

STEC is a normal commensal in the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats and other farmed animals.

This report has been produced in response to a Request for Advice to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) Scientific Committee in December 2016 regarding STEC detection in food.

The evolving picture of human Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) illness and changes in the methodology for STEC detection in human clinical samples and in food has resulted in a lack of agreement across Europe on the risk posed and the appropriate risk-based action to be taken when STEC is detected in food. STEC is potentially transmitted through contaminated water, contact with livestock or contaminated environments, or contaminated food.

In 2014, the European Commission (EC) attempted to introduce a harmonised approach to assess and manage the risk of STEC in food, but European Union (EU) Member States (MSs) were unable to reach a common agreement and the EC suspended this work in 2016. A number of individual EU MSs have made their own risk assessments and policy decisions based on human epidemiology data and consumer practices relevant to their country, and some of these are summarised in this report.

Since 2008 – and with the exception of 2011, when Germany reported the highest rate due to a large E. coli O104:H4 outbreak – Ireland has had the highest reported STEC notification rate in Europe. In 2016, Ireland’s notification rate was 15.6 cases per 100,000 population.

Learn more in this infographic.