CONSECUTIVE SALMONELLA OUTBREAKS TRACED TO THE SAME BAKERY

Two consecutive community outbreaks of Salmonella enteritidis phage ty pe 4 (PT4) traced to the same bakery occurred in Cardiff, Wales during August-September 1992. In the first outbreak, illness was associated with eating custard slices (odds ratio 23.8, 95% confidence interval 6 .5-94.4, P < 0.0001), and in the second, with eating fresh cream cakes (odds ratio 15.8, 95% confidence interval 1.6-374, P = 0.004). Enviro nmental investigations implicated cross-contamination during preparati on of the cold-custard mix as the cause of the first outbreak, and ina dequate cleaning and disinfection of nozzles used for piping cream in the second outbreak, S, enteritidis PT4 was isolated from fresh cream sponge cake retained by a case and from two fresh cream cakes and four environmental swabs obtained at the bakery. This incident illustrates the hazard of widespread environmental contamination with salmonella and the need for thorough environmental cleansing of any premises impl icated in an outbreak of food poisoning.