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40
boiled cabbage, roast and boiled potatoes and gravy. eaten between
12.30 p.m. and 1,30 p.m. on 26th May, One of the twelve had cottage
pie instead of roast beef, and a few had soup also. The sweets
consisted of pineapple and evaporated milk or apple tart and
custard.
The number at risk was 40. The onset of the first symptoms
was 12 hours and of the last symptoms 20 hours after consumption
of the meal. Samples of the remains of the cooked beef and of the
stock which formed the basic ingredient of the soup were submitted
to the Public Health Laboratory at County Hall. No gravy was
available for sampling. Samples of the beef and soup stock proved
to be negative.
Faeces specimens were obtained from 5 cases and 4 foodhandlers.
Of the 5 cases, 3 were negative and 2 were positive for Clostridium
Welchii. The four food handlers were negative. Repeat faeces
specimens from the cases from whom the causative organism was
isolated were examined and the reports were negative.
For various reasons it was not found possible to obtain
specimens from the remainder of the 12 cases.
The meal consumed by the cases was prepared in the following
way.
The meat, which weighed 10½ lbs., was prepared and rolled
ready for cooking by a local butcher, who sold it to the canteen
on the morning of the 25th May. On the same morning it was boiled
for 2 hours, then cooled in the kitchen for 2½ hours and afterwards
placed in a refrigerator. About 16 hours later, on the
morning of the 26th May, the meat was sliced and placed on plates.
Gravy, made two hours previously with the liquor from the boiled
beef, flour, browning and seasoning, was poured over the meat.
Hot vegetables were then placed on the plates and the whole meal
put on to a preheated hot plate for ¾ hour.
Although the evidence is not conclusive it is probable that
the origin of the infection was the gravy made from the liquor
of the boiled brisket of beef, cooled and reheated.