Chocolate & Salmonella

While people generally associate salmonella with undercooked meat or raw eggs, this nasty bug also can contaminate chocolate. An estimated 2 million to 4 million cases of salmonellosis occur in the United States annually, transmitted by the consumption of milk and dairy products, fish, shrimp, sauces, cake mixes, peanut butter and cocoa.

Significance

It may seem unfair that the ultimate comfort food can be infected by a bacterium often spread by the fecal matter of humans and animals, but it does happen. In fact, the high fat content of chocolate protects the bacteria from stomach acid that might otherwise destroy it.

Features

Chocolate tainted with salmonella may not look or smell bad, but it can make you feel sick. Salmonella in chocolate can survive 125 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, a level of heat that would kill the bacteria in open air, Allison McGeer, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, told the Globe and Mail.

History

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s online list of food safety recalls shows that in 2009, Trader Joe’s had to recall chocolate drinks and chocolate chip chewy granola bars contaminated by salmonella. That same year, Dunkin’ Donuts temporarily suspended serving hot chocolate and Dunkacinno drinks after a supplier’s equipment became contaminated. In 2010, Nestle stopped product of chocolate chips at its plant in Burlington, Wisconsin, after it detected salmonella in batches produced in February and on April 22.

Geography

Outbreaks also occurred in 2006 at a Hershey’s factory in Ontario, Canada, affecting Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. In Britain and Ireland, Cadbury recalled a million chocolate bars after a leaky pipe at the company’s plant in Herefordshire contaminated the chocolate mix. The company came under fire for detecting salmonella in its product but assuming the levels were small enough to be safe, the Times of London reported. Scientists and consumer groups in the United Kingdom protested that no level of salmonella is safe. In 1987, consumers in Norway and Finland became sick upon eating chocolate. A report in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology by G. Kapperud at Norway’s Department of Public Health and colleagues noted that some of those sickened may have been exposed to as few as 10 microorganisms. In 2001 and 2005, German chocolate became contaminated.

Warning

Salmonella can get into processed foods such as chocolate via contaminated ingredients, frequently peanuts or Brazil nuts added to chocolate bars, or by food-processing workers who are sick and do not wash their hands after bathroom visits and handle implements or ingredients. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps beginning 12 to 72 hours after infection and lasting four to seven days.