Sandwiches

I bought a Brie sandwich. On the front it was named "Brie My Baby". It was tasty and the salad in it was fresh. Perhaps the the bread was a little bit too crusty, but really how wrong can you go with a sandwich?

It can go very wrong according to a figure in the Metro newspaper today, which said 400 people have become ill in a year from listeria, a bug found in prepared food. This is double the numbers of 2001. 

400 people is not a large proportion of the population, however the fact is the numbers appear to be increasing and an Food Standards Agency spokeswoman said: "Although 400 cases each year is still quite small, a lot of them get hospitalised and there is a high proportion of deaths." 

Listeria can infest salads, cooked meat, soft cheese and pate. All the types of foods you can get in sandwiches. "Brie my Baby" could have made a good breeding ground. 

According to the website of the Food Standards Agency: "Symptoms of listeria infection can take up to 90 days after exposure and may start with a fever, "flu-like" illness and/or diarrhoea." And it can be treated effectively with antibiotics.

For preventative measures, the key is to make sure the sandwich is eaten before the date and that it has been stored below 5 degrees celcius.