Food poisoning cases due to salmonella infection hit all-time high

The number of food poisoning patients is surging amid hot and humid monsoon weather. Salmonella, the cause of mass food poisoning in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, has infected a record number of people this year.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of patients infected with salmonella amounted to 192 at sentinel general hospitals nationwide during the first to third week of June (May 29 – June 18). The number represents a whopping 36.2 percent jump from 142 in the previous three weeks (May 8 – 28), and is an all-time high recorded during the same yearly period since 2015 when the health authority started tallying. Patients infected with viruses causing food poisoning including norovirus and adenovirus has almost doubled this year lately from last year.

Salmonella wildly reproduces amid high and humid weather condition. According to an epidemiological investigation by the Korean Food and Drug Safety Ministry, the cold noodle restaurant in Gimhae, the origin of mass food poisoning that left one person killed, used fried egg leftovers from the previous day in cold noodle servings after keeping it in the freezer. It is believed that salmonella bacteria rapidly reprocessed while egg was fried, and as a result a small amount of fried egg amounting to just 5 grams to 10 grams per serving caused food poisoning in as many as 34 people.


Gun-Hee Cho becom@donga.com