Norway’s fruit and produce supplier Bama has recalled an “Exotic Mix” of dried fruit and nuts, after at least 21 people in 10 Norwegian counties have been infected by salmonella. Several of them had eaten the product labelled as Eksotisk miks.
It was still too early to conclude whether the fruit and nut mixture sold in plastic bags is the source of the “Salmonella Agbeni” bacteria that has sickened 12 males and 18 females aged two to 91 in recent weeks. Those are just the registered cases of salmonella infection in people living in Oslo, Akershus, Østfold, Vestfold, Vest-Agder, Rogaland, Møre og Romsdal, Trøndelag and Nordland. There may be be more who haven’t gone to the doctor with stomach and intestinal ailments.
Norway’s public health institute (Folkehelseinstituttet) has been investigating the salmonella outbreak and it went into a new phase Wednesday evening.
“We now know that several of those who’ve become sick during the ongoing outbreak of salmonella have eaten this dried fruit mix,” Karina Kaupang, a director at Norway’s food and animal safety authority Mattilsynet told state broadcaster NRK. She said that samples of the Eksotisk miks were being analyzed but no results were available yet.
The most common symptoms of salmonella infection are diarrhea, headache, stomach pain, nausea and fever. The bacteria almost always is transmitted through food, most often pork and chicken, eggs, milk, shellfish, vegetables and spices.
newsinenglish.no staff
