Food Poisoning

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To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many research projects on food poisoning the Scottish Office is funding in Scotland; and if he will list them.

[holding answer 15 February 1991]: The following research projects in Scotland relevant to food poisoning are being funded by the Scottish Office.

1. Rapid methods of determining bacterial numbers in milk and milk products.

2. The properties, particularly in respect to pathogenicity, of spore forming organisms in milk.

3.The source and factors controlling the growth of Listeria spp in milk and milk products.

4. Quantify the routes and describe the factors regulating the transmission of micro-organisms in eggs.

5. Biochemical activity, virulence factors and food chain distribution of Yersinia enterocolitica.

6. Listeriosis: A case control study to test the hypothesis that the consumption or handling of "high risk" foods are risk factors in acquiring infection.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many cases of food poisoning were detected and treated in Scotland in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

[holding answer 15 February 1991]: The numbers of confirmed notifications by doctors to health boards of cases of food poisoning in these years were 2,998, 3,197 and 3,037 (provisional) respectively. Information about the treatment of individual patients is not held centrally.

Volume 186: debated on Monday 18 February 1991