Staphylococcal Food Poisoning Caused by Imported Canned Mushrooms

From February through April 1989, four outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning in the United States were associated with eating mushrooms canned in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the four outbreaks, 99 persons who ate at a suspect facility developed gastrointestinal symptoms within...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 1996-05, Vol.173 (5), p.1263-1267
Main Authors: Levine, William C., Bennett, Reginald W., Choi, Youngsook, Henning, Kelly J., Rager, Judith R., Hendricks, Katherine A., Hopkins, David P., Gunn, Robert A., Griffin, Patricia M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Bacterial diseases
Basidiomycota
Biological and medical sciences
Cafeterias
Concise Communications
Disease Outbreaks
Diseases
Enterotoxins
Enterotoxins - analysis
Epidemiology
Food Preservation
Food Services
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Mississippi - epidemiology
Mushrooms
New York - epidemiology
Pennsylvania - epidemiology
Plant diseases
Preventive medicine
Staphylococcal food poisoning
Staphylococcal Food Poisoning - epidemiology
Staphylococcal infections, streptococcal infections, pneumococcal infections
Staphylococcus
Staphylococcus aureus
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Summary:From February through April 1989, four outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning in the United States were associated with eating mushrooms canned in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the four outbreaks, 99 persons who ate at a suspect facility developed gastrointestinal symptoms within 24 h, including 18 who were hospitalized. Illness was associated with eating mushrooms at a university cafeteria (relative risk [RR] = 53.0), a hospital cafeteria (RR = 13.8), a pizzeria (odds ratio [OR] = ∞), and a restaurant (OR = ∞) (all P < .0001). Staphylococcal enterotoxin A was found by ELISA in mushrooms at the sites of two outbreaks and in unopened cans from the three plants thought to have produced mushrooms implicated in outbreaks. These investigations led to multistate recalls and a US Food and Drug Administration order to restrict entry into the United States of all mushrooms produced in the PRC; until this action, the United States imported ∼50 million pounds yearly.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/173.5.1263