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There was an outbreak of food poisoning at a very large factory in the Borough at
which about 800 food handlers are engaged in the preparation and distribution of food
for several thousand employees. It was impossible to estimate with any degree of
accuracy the number of people affected as notification of the outbreak was not received by
the department until three days after its commencement. Some of the earlier cases
could, therefore, have returned to work before the investigations of this department
commenced. An added complication was the fact that part of the factory premises are
in an adjoining local authority district; close liaison with this authority therefore had
to be maintained throughout the investigations. There were, however, at least 87 cases
that could reasonably be connected v/ith this outbreak, of whom only 24 lived in Dagenham.
It was demonstrated that the organism (Salmonella typhimurium) isolated from
the patients was also present in unpasteurised frozen egg used in the bakery. It is
suspected that the organism was transmitted in synthetic cream contaminated from the
frozen egg.
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