UK – Scotland – Food Standards Scotland statement on the release of the Dunsyre Blue E. coli O157 Incident Management Team report

Food Standards Scotland, as a member of the Incident Management Team involved in producing the report issued by Health Protection Scotland today (29 March), fully supports the report’s findings.

The report concludes that Dunsyre Blue cheese was the source of the E. coli O157 outbreak in the summer of 2016 which led to 17 people being hospitalised and sadly, one fatality.

The outbreak led to further investigations of cheese produced by Errington Cheese Ltd and of the production processes in place at the time. The report concludes that:

“Potentially pathogenic E. coli were able to enter and survive the cheese production process at the food business. Positive results were obtained for cheese produced over a period of four months, indicating a systematic potential for STEC to enter the process and contaminate final products.