Cheese produced by a company linked to an E. coli outbreak that killed a three-year-old child did not present a significant risk to health, a court was told.
Richard North, a food safety consultant, said evidence relied upon to show that Errington Cheese’s products contained harmful levels of the bacteria was “flawed”.
The company was linked to a food poisoning outbreak in 2016 in which the girl from Dunbartonshire died and several other consumers were made ill.
No traces of E. coli O157 — one of the most dangerous strains — were found in cheeses made by Errington but other types of the bacteria were found, which led food safety agencies to name its Dunsyre Blue cheese as the source of the outbreak. Following an investigation, the Crown Office said there would be no criminal proceedings because of a lack of evidence linking the firm to the death of the girl.
A range of Errington products are made from unpasteurised milk on their farm in Carnwath, Lanarkshire, and environmental workers seized batches of their Lanark Blue and Corra Linn as a result of the outbreak.
Advertisement
The company is in a legal battle with South Lanarkshire council, which is attempting to have its cheese declared unfit for human consumption and destroyed.
Errington was hit with a “food alert for action” from Food Standards Scotland that prohibited the sale of their products in September 2016, said to have cost them more than £500,000.
Dr North, 69, a former public health inspector, told a civil hearing at Hamilton sheriff court that the council was wrong to conclude that the cheese-making process would not kill traces of E. coli.
Questioned by the company’s founder, Humphrey Errington, he said: “To assert cheese-making does not involve a kill step is flawed, that is what cheese-making is. The process itself involves the destruction of micro-organisms. It is an extremely effective step and would be relied upon to produce a food free from contamination.
“It’s very, very clear from the substance of the evidence that the number of micro-organisms found was extremely small. The law accepts that E. coli are part of the normal flora of the food we eat. We eat it every day without fail, they are on your hands probably right now.”
Advertisement
The hearing continues.