Fallout following contaminated sprouts in SA and NT

Whose reputations suffer as a result of the contaminated sprouts incident in South Australia and the Northern Territory?

SA has given mung bean sprouts the all clear now it has identified the source of the contamination that sickened 254 and saw 48 people hospitalised since last December.

Investigations by SA Health in conjunction with local councils traced the source of the contamination to an unnamed factory. This facility has cooperated completely with SA Health directives to clean the plant and SA Health has advised that there is no longer any risk to consumers. SA Health does not indicate if any prosecutions were made in regard to this contamination incident.

I have to say this is all positive — problem identified, source of contamination identified, thorough clean-up... problem solved. But while the factory that was the source of the contamination has not been named, some of the places that served the contaminated sprouts have been.

How fair is this?

What compensation is there for those that used the sprouts in good faith or those who became ill?

It doesn’t matter how fastidious you may have been with your hygiene and sanitation procedures, if you bring contaminated produce into your kitchen that is then served without passing through a kill step you can make your clients ill. And then it is your reputation that will suffer.

Rather interestingly, SA Health also said, “We are anticipating that more cases will be notified for a few weeks but these will be associated with previous consumption.”

Possibly none of us should ever touch salad again.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/SunnyS