US Deli behind biggest E coli outbreak
01 January 2000
A DELICATESSEN'S potato salad is the suspected cause of one of the biggest-ever outbreaks of E coli poisoning in the USA, which affected up to 4,500 people in Chicago, Illinois, last month.
Tests carried out last week pointed the finger at potato salad served by Ivan's Deli and Catering as the most likely source.
The salad was sold over the counter and also served at more than 300 parties catered for by Ivan's during the weekend of the outbreak.
The poisoning is the largest documented in the USA of a relatively rare bacterium, known as ETEC, or traveller's diarrhoea, a less virulent form than E coli 0157.
