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The Occurrence of Salmonella in Airline Meals

Abstract

The occurrence of Salmonella in airline meals was studied in 1989-1992. Samples were collected from flight kitchens in 29 countries. The material consisted of 400 cold dishes and 1,288 hot dishes as well as salads, cheese plates and desserts. Total number of samples was 2211. Salmonella spp. were isolated from 6 samples; 1 contaminated sample was a cold dish prepared in Bangkok, 1 was a hot dish prepared in Mombasa and the remaining 4 contaminated samples were hot dishes prepared within one week in Beijing. The isolated serotypes were S. ohio, S. manchester and S. braenderup. The contaminated cold dish prepared by a flight kitchen in Bangkok was found to be connected with a Salmonella outbreak which occurred in Finland in 1990. Cold airline dishes containing food of animal origin seems to be more risky as a source of Salmonella infections among airline passengers.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by The Finnish Veterinary Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank the staff of the Food and Environmental Laboratory of the City of Vantaa for technical assistance, and Professor Hannu Korkeala for his valuable criticism of the manuscript.

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Hatakka, M., Asplund, K. The Occurrence of Salmonella in Airline Meals. Acta Vet Scand 34, 391–396 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03548183

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