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A national food safety crisis, caused by a large-scale contamination of popular cereal brands with Salmonella altona, occurred in Israel during the summer of 2016. Previous major food safety events in Israel had led to significant changes in public awareness and perception, as well as in food safety regulations.1,2 Here, we discuss lessons learned and future influence on national food safety policy and legislation.
THE EVENT
On July 28, 2016, in response to queries from the press, the Israeli branch of a large multinational consumer goods manufacturer disclosed that a month before, it had halted one of its main food assembly lines from production of several popular cereal brands because of Salmonella contamination (Figure 1).3 One day earlier, this company had been asked by journalists about the shortage of those popular breakfast cereal brands in many retail stores around the country. The message delivered to the public at this stage was that of zero risk to consumers from contaminated products because, allegedly, none ofthe contaminated products' batches were shipped outside the factory for marketing.
Following the delayed announcement by the manufacturer, on July 28, 2016, the Israel Association of Public Health Physicians of the Israel Medical Association issued a public health warning to consumers and regulatory authorities concerning the realistic risk that potentially contaminated food products did arrive to the market after all. This warning became an unfortunate reality on August 4, 2016, when the company announced that contaminated cereals had been eventually marketed. This revelation was possible only after the Ministry of Health ordered the manufacturer to publish the batch numbers of contaminated products, and, shortly after that, consumers reported to have those products at their homes.
The Event's Aftermath
Apparently, more than 150 000 potentially contaminated individual packs of cereals (approximately 120 tons) from several product batches were quarantined by the manufacturer. The quarantine took place probably at the end of June 2016, after the contamination was first identified by a private laboratory in a routine sample. The manufacturer is a large and established corporation, acknowledged by a Good Manufacturing Practices permit by the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health has since opened an active in-depth official investigation, and has transiently suspended the plant's Good Manufacturing Practices permit. The event attracted unprecedented...