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In a district such as St. Marylebone with its large number of restaurants, staff canteens and other
places where people eat away from home, as well as hotels accommodating numerous visitors from home
and abroad and persons in transit, there are inevitably during the course of the year reports of suspected
food poisoning. These all require investigation even though for one reason or another the cases may
not be notifiable to this Authority. In addition, enquiries have frequently to be made regarding food
handlers who are contacts of this disease or other intestinal disturbances.
Among the more interesting investigations which took place during 1959 were the following.
Outbreak of Food Poisoning following a Private Party.
Following a luncheon party given on Saturday, 27th June, seven of the eleven guests plus the cook
were reported to have been taken ill with symptoms of food poisoning late on the same evening and
during the following day. Another guest was taken ill late on Monday the 29th. Amongst the foods
suspected were chicken livers with chopped onions mixed with egg and chicken fat served as hors
d'oeuvre, cold roast chicken, cold tongue, sauerkraut and potato salad with mayonnaise, meringue
tart and fresh cream. Conditions in the home were excellent, with a modern kitchen equipped and
designed on hygienic lines. All perishable food had been stored in a refrigerator and the cook had
no history of previous illness, symptoms of diarrhoea or evidence of skin or other infection. Portions
of the chicken, potato salad, mayonnaise and cream were left over from the meal and these were
examined bacteriologically but yielded nothing of significance but the stools of some of the patients
produced salmonella typhi murium phage type 2C. During the course of investigations the source
of the various foods was traced, including the frozen egg white used in the mixing of the meringue
which was of Dutch origin, and the chickens which had come via a wholesaler in the East End of London.
The mode of preparation of the chicken livers gave rise to suspicion that there was a possibility of
salmonellae in the centre of the liver having escaped destruction by insufficient cooking and in the
absence of more positive evidence this seemed to be a possible source of infection.
Outbreak of Suspected Food Poisoning at Business Premises.
Following a telephone call to this office on the 25th September, by the manager of a business house
in the Borough who reported that several members of his staff were ill with symptoms of food poisoning,
it was found that at least 22 people had been taken ill during the late evening of Thursday, 24th
September and the early hours of the following day with symptoms of abdominal pain and attacks
of diarrhoea.
The meal suspected was the mid-day lunch served to 300 members of the staff and although only
22 reported sick it is believed that many more had slight symptoms. The food eaten common to all
those taken ill was steak and kidney pie served with gravy and vegetables and it was noted that only
members of the first party for lunch at twelve noon were affected.
Bacteriological examination of the available foods left over from the suspected meal failed to reveal
any organism which could definitely be said to be responsible for the outbreak. Furthermore no food
poisoning organisms were found in stools from either the patients or the kitchen staff. However,
it was discovered that the steak and kidney pie had been made the previous evening and left to cool
overnight in the kitchen and re-heated the next day and this is thought to be the probable source
of infection. This item had been consumed at both the first and second sittings. Although there is
no reliable explanation of why only members of the first party should have become ill, it is interesting
to note that the pie served at the second sitting had been re-heating for nearly an hour longer than that
served at the first and this may have had some effect.
Outbreak of Food Poisoning following Staff Party.
On the afternoon of the 26th November, information was received that following a large staff
party held in the Borough on the 24th November, many of the guests had become ill with symptoms
suggestive of food poisoning.
Some 800 employees and their friends coming mostly from outer London and the home counties,
had attended the party. The extent of the outbreak was somewhat obscured and investigations complicated
by the fact that no list of guests existed and the firm in question had a large number of branches
in many different local authorities' areas. Although no one living or working in St. Marylebone
was reported as ill, as the party had been held in this Borough responsibility for the co-ordination
of investigations was undertaken and full scale enquiries made from here. The Medical Officer of
Health of each district in which there was a branch of the firm was immediately contacted by
telephone, followed on the 27th by a letter and questionnaire setting out full details of the menu
and requesting information as to the exact items of food consumed by those who had attended and
details as to the time of onset, symptoms, etc., of any who had been ill. At the same time, enquiries