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Outbreak of Histamine Poisoning Associated with Consumption of Swiss Cheese
Steve L Taylor1, Thomas J Keefe1, Ernest S Windham1
1Food Research Institute, Departments of Food Microbiology and Toxicology and Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, Department of Pathology, Brooke Army Medical Center, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas 78234 and USAF Hospital Elmendorf, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska 99506.
Abstract:
On 24 March 1980, an outbreak of suspected food-borne illness involving six individuals occurred on the USS Benjamin Franklin. Nausea and vomiting occurred within 30 min to 1 h following consumption of a common meal comprised of a salad made from lettuce, sliced ham and sliced Swiss cheese. Symptoms persisted for approximately one hour. No evidence of pathogenic bacteria or staphylococcal enterotoxins was found on analysis of the salad components. However, histamine analysis of the Swiss cheese revealed an average histamine level for three subsamples of 187 mg/100 g, a level sufficient to implicate histamine as the causative agent of this outbreak.
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