Pleasure & peril: The discovery of salmonella in an Ontario candy factory has left chocolate lovers with a very bad taste

14.nov.06
Globe and Mail
Carolyn Abraham and Ingrid Peritz

TORONTO, MONTREAL -- The discovery of salmonella in an ingredient at a Hershey's factory in Ontario came, according to this story, as bittersweet news to chocolate lovers. After all, a bacterium most people associate with undercooked chicken was being linked to one of our greatest pleasure foods.
The story says that the Hershey's case, for example, which prompted a national recall on the weekend, marks the third time in five years the nasty bug has been linked to the world's best-loved confection.
Mansel Griffiths, director of the Canadian Institute for Food Safety Research in Guelph, Ont., was quoted as saying, "This isn't surprising. Outbreaks of salmonella related to chocolate occur on a fairly frequent basis. Chocolate is . . . a good environment for salmonella to survive."
One culprit is the very thing that makes chocolate so good: its high fat content, which may help protect the bug from stomach acids that could otherwise help to destroy it.
Prof. Griffiths, who teaches in the food sciences department at the University of Guelph, was further quoted as saying, "Chocolate is high in sugar and fat, so it helps the organism survive its transition through the stomach."
Allison McGeer, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, was cited as saying that in chocolate, salmonella can survive temperatures of 125 degrees for 20 minutes -- conditions that would otherwise kill it.
Prof. Griffiths was cited as estimating salmonella cases related to chocolate occur somewhere in the world about once a year, adding, "It's a treat, something that we take pleasure in eating. So it's psychological. The things we like, we don't expect to make us ill."
Dr. McGeer predicts the world is likely to hear about a lot more cases of tainted chocolate and other food contamination in the future due to better international surveillance.
This summer, Cadbury recalled a million chocolate bars in Britain and Ireland after salmonella was found at one of its factories and health officials noted a spike in salmonella cases, especially among children.
During the winter of 2001, an international outbreak of salmonella that sickened more than 300 people was traced back to German chocolate. A 2005 report from epidemiologists in Berlin found that tainted German chocolate had also made its way to Canada.
The suspected source in this summer's Cadbury's recall, for example, involved a leaky water pipe contaminating a batter of milk, cocoa and sugar.
Keith Warriner, a professor of food microbiology at the University of Guelph, was cited as saying that once salmonella gets into the environment, it can survive up to 200 days.
Hershey's has so far refused to reveal the product that tested positive for salmonella at its factory, prompting a shutdown last week. It caused a recall of more than two dozen products over the weekend, including Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Lowney Cherry Blossom.
A company spokeswoman yesterday said the culprit is "externally sourced" and was not a major component of chocolate, such as milk or cocoa. So far, the company has received no confirmed reports of illness.