Without the rapid intervention of the food safety task force at the Darmstadt regional council, the damage caused by cucumber slices contaminated with dangerous germs in hospital food could have assumed greater dimensions.

The leader of the task force, Tobias Lackner, drew this conclusion on Friday.

It became known over Easter that between October 2021 and January 2022 several people in Hesse had contracted a listeria infection after eating cut vegetables contaminated with germs from Maus Fruchtgrosshandel & Schneidebetrieb from Gernsheim in the Groß-Gerau district.

Jochen Remert

Airport editor and correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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This is also related to the death of a patient at the Sana Clinic in Offenbach, who, according to the information, had been diagnosed with sepsis as a result of a listeria infection.

Listeria infections originating from the vegetables from Gernsheim were also detected in a Frankfurt clinic.

The public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt has initiated investigations.

In the worst case, the head of the company has to face charges of negligent homicide.

extent cannot be compared

At the present time, however, it is too early to commit, said a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office when asked.

First of all, the results of a commissioned report would have to be available and a number of witnesses would have to be questioned.

As Task Force boss Lackner said, the current case cannot be compared in its dimensions with the food scandal at the North Hessian sausage producer Wilke in 2019.

The processing part of the Gernsheim plant was already closed on February 17th, thus preventing the further spread of cut vegetables contaminated with the dangerous germs.

Only the distribution of delivered fruit and vegetables may continue.

In the Wilke case, on the other hand, suspected contaminated sausage products had been delivered for months, which is why an international warning had been issued.

Precisely because one learned from this experience, increased staff and eliminated structural weaknesses in food control, one was able to quickly stop the distribution of presumably contaminated salad components.

Irrespective of this, Lackner also said that there had been significant omissions in the controls for which the district of Groß-Gerau was responsible.

Significant source of danger

The district itself has admitted that operations have not been properly inspected for the past two years.

District Administrator Thomas Will (SPD) has not ruled out personal consequences.

Task force chief Lackner went on to say that the density of operational controls during the corona pandemic had decreased significantly, and not just in the Groß-Gerau district.

However, this is not only due to the fact that inspectors were temporarily deployed to fight the pandemic, but also to the fact that companies were closed during the pandemic.

Beatrice Ladewig, who is in charge of the mouse case in the task force, explained that after finding Listeria, three companies had to be checked as possible sources of infection because the cut lettuce components, which were also delivered to clinics, came from three different suppliers came from.

The Gernsheim company turned out to be the originator.

According to his own statements, Ladewig repeatedly points out - also in information sheets - that pre-cut raw food that is possibly stored for days can pose a considerable source of danger for young and old people with a weakened immune system.