Finnish consumer dies after eating botulinum-tainted olives

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) ordered the withdrawal of a batch of Italian olives from sale last week after 2 connected cases of botulism arose in Finland.

And as a precautionary measure, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said on Friday that it was withdrawing from sale all batches and container sizes of the olives, made by Italian producer Gaudiano.

The Italian olives stuffed with almonds responsible for the Finnish outbreak were produced under the Gaudiano Organic brand, carried the batch code H2150X and were packaged in 314ml glass jars.

The FSAI added that a small quantity of the product – from a different batch from that implicated in the Finnish death – was distributed to Irish producer Russell Gallery in 2010, and that other batches in the country had been removed from sale.

The FSAI said that no cases of botulism had been reported in Ireland linked to the product, but recommended that consumers who had bought the olives should dispose of them.

In the UK around 40 jars of olives from the implicated batch were distributed to UK firm Greencity Wholefoods in Glasgow, and were imported into the UK last September.