The main food microbiology lab in the United Kingdom has shared highlights of its recent activity in an annual report.
The report covers work of the UK’s national reference laboratory (NRL) for food microbiology between April 2023 and March 2024.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) provides the service for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS). It covers Listeria monocytogenes, coagulase-positive staphylococci, E. coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and antimicrobial resistance.
The UK NRL has continued to experience restrictions on attendance at European Union Reference Laboratories (EURL) meetings since leaving the EU.
The lab was part of two EURL meetings remotely where the Proficiency Testing (PT) activity was covered. Representatives were invited to take part in some STEC EURL training, including WGS bioinformatics and detection of STEC in food.
Requests and information received
The UK NRL shares information with the Official Laboratory (OL) network, the FSA and other stakeholders.
Requests for advice included a query from a health protection team regarding a Clostridium spp. result from meat, a local authority asking for sampling advice, an OL querying a Salmonella typing result, and contact from health protection teams about Listeria results.
FSA correspondence included testing for E. coli in unwashed micro greens, testing Vibrio in imported seafood, increasing the sample size to test ground (minced) meat for Salmonella, and detection of STEC using an alternative method.
The E. coli EURL shared a notification concerning an E. coli O26 alert in raw fermented milk in France in May 2023 that sickened six people and this was sent to relevant UK colleagues.
In May 2023, the Campylobacter EURL flagged a possible multi-country outbreak of Campylobacter jejuni ST464 and requested information from European countries on sequence and meta-data of any such strains from 2020 onwards. A summary report was produced by the EURL in November 2023. Patients in at least five EU countries have fallen ill with this type of Campylobacter and the source is likely to be chicken.
In August 2023, the UK NRL received a product warning from the antimicrobial resistance EURL regarding contamination in Sensititre broth and this was forwarded to colleagues using this product.
Assessing performance and current work
The UK NRL participated in nine EURL proficiency tests. One was cancelled, and performance was either satisfactory or good for six assessments. The UK NRL was awaiting performance evaluation results for the remaining two tests at the time of the report.
All 14 OLs registered to participate in at least one of the four tests available from the 2023 to 2024 European Food Microbiology Legislation scheme. The average performance was above the 70 percent threshold for follow-up action.
The UK NRL has also been in contact with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) for E. coli and Salmonella in shellfish activities and with Campden BRI to discuss and implement challenge testing.
Planned activities for April 2024 to March 2025 include assessing Official Laboratory capability and capacity for the UK via an audit, a literature review on AMR in Listeria in food, and participation in a working group for revised ISO 13136 on PCR detection of STEC.
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