Salmonella outbreak at Finnish Raisio Feed Ltd.

The same bacteria had been detected in environment samples taken over several years by Raisio Feed in its self-monitoring. Still the company is not blamed for any serious shortcomings, or any other mistakes. The company also denies that it failed to monitor the quality of its output, or that it acted negligently in connection with a recent outbreak of the salmonella bacteria.

“Positive salmonella samples are found every year in environment samples. When this happens, the area in question is disinfected, after which new samples are taken. The cleaning is continued until all samples are clean" said Raisio’s head of communications Heidi Hirvonen.

The last time that salmonella was found in environment samples was last autumn. In early March salmonella was first found on a production line and in feed that had been manufactured. Initially it was believed that the bacteria had come to the factory via foreign raw materials. However, according to the Finnish Food Safety Authority (EVIRA), none of the lots of soybean feed imported into Finland had any bacteria of the type. The bacteria got into the production process through the cooling system.