Supermarket chain Colruyt has issued a recall notice for cooked roast beef, fresh beef and prepared products containing ground beef after the discovery of the bacterium E. coli, Belga reports. The products have already been withdrawn from Colruyt's shelves. Customers who recently bought any of the products concerned are advised to return them to the store for a refund.
Escherichia coli is a bacterium found in the intestines of animals and humans, and is in most cases harmless. However it can enter the human food chain during the slaughter of meat animals, causing food poisoning that can range in gravity from an attack of diarrhoea to an infection that can be life-threatening in vulnerable groups including children, pregnant women and the elderly. Symptoms can take up to ten days to appear, and can vary from stomach upsets to urinary tract infections and pneumonia.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times