European alert for the Romanian ewe-cheese following baby’s E.coli case in Italy

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Italy sent an alert notification regarding the Romanian ewe-cheese produced by Bradet dairy company in the RASFF, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of the European Commission. The notification was sent on March 16 and refers to the Romanian ewe-cheese contaminated with E.coli bacteria that produces the Shiva toxin.

Over 20 tons of Bradet products withdrawn from the local market

Romania’s National Sanitary and Veterinary Authority for Food Safety (ASNVA) warned citizens in a press conference on Friday not to eat dairy products produced by Bradet in February, while informing that the Romanian made products would be withdrawn from three other countries in the European Union, besised Italy. The above-mentioned ewe-cheese is distributed in France, Germany or Spain.

Over 20 tons of dairy products produced by Bradet company based in Arges have been withdrawn from the Romanian market, ANSVA recommending the Romanians to throw away any product of the company if they have them.

A similar decision was taken in Spain, where 1,112 kilos of dairy products have been withdrawn from the market and in Italy (546 kilos).

All Bradet products made in February have been withdrawn. It’s possible that people still have some products at home. We recommend people not to eat them,” said Andrei Butaru, ANSVSA director.

The alert comes after the Italian authorities confirmed the connection between Bradet cheese and the case of the Romanian-born baby, aged 1 year and 2 months, admitted to a hospital in Florence, Italy after having been diagnosed with E.coli.

According to the Romanian Health Ministry, the baby’s family is established in Italy and all the members ate ewe-cheese produced in Romania on March 5th. They all faced diarrhea symptoms and the child has been hospitalised with the hemolytic uremic syndrome on March 12th.

The Italian sanitary authorities identified E.coli O26 strain, positive for the verotoxine 1 and 2 and ordered the withdrawal of these products from the stores in Italy,” the ministry’s representative Amalia Serban said.

According to her, the experts concluded that there are three clear evidence linking this case to the other sick children in Romania: the identification of the dairy product made and imported from Romania, the existence of the O26 strain in the biological samples of the child in Italy and identification of the above-mentioned E.coli strain in the cheese sample.

 AgriMin: I hope Europe understand it’s an accident

Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu said that the contamination of a Romanian cheese with Escherichia coli is an accident, adding that he has no other information except media reports on a notification by Italian authorities on cheese made in Romania.

“I hope from all my heart that Europe understands that this was an accident. Its relaibility is to be confirmed; we must see clearly what happened there, but the most important is to trust the Romanian products. We all know that we have products of an outstanding quality. There are situations when by not fully observing standards in certain areas, small accidents have occurred, but we hope it won’t happen again (…)” Irimescu stated.

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