We have had our share of food quality worries over the last few years here in the UK with Salmonella in eggs, BSE in cattle, and now there is a new bug to worry about ESBL E.coli.
This variant of the E.coli bug is classed as a superbug, it is resistant to almost all known antibiotics, and now it is here.
There are figures suggesting that more than 30,000 people a year are being infected by ESBL E.coli and it has a fatality rate of around 10% thats 3,000 people a year potentially dying from this bug in our food. This 10% death rate is also backed by a research paper that was presented at a major conference in Chicago last week.
The Health Protection Agency has recorded more than 400 cases in the past 12 months.
Although there has been no real information provided to the public there is a lot of information available about this issue.
You can find more information about the ESBL E.coli superbug on these websites
ITV Tonight Program
http://www.itv.com/News/tonight/episodes/Thepoisononyourplate/default.html
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3901375.stm
DEFRA
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/zoonoses/esbl.htm
www.dh.gov.uk
Looks like a good reason for being a vegetarian