SOFHT Director on BBC News 24

On Tuesday 14th August SOFHT was approached for a Microbiological view on the Paisley outbreak of E.coli 0157. The Society nominated John Rigarlsford, Consultant Microbiologist and one of your Directors.

John attended a live interview at 3.00pm at the BBC studios in Nottingham where he was asked what he thought was the cause of the outbreak. He talked a little about the bacterium and that it was probably a lapse in hygiene, perhaps as simple as not washing hands between handling raw and cooked meats somewhere in the supply chain. He assured them that like most leading Supermarkets, Morrisons had very high hygiene standards. In fact, in the past, he had personally helped audit some of their Supermarkets and found the hygiene standards very good. John confirmed the most vulnerable and likely to be at risk from the bacterium were the very young, the elderly and the immuno-compromised.

When further questioned he said that the human body had excellent natural defences and, provided good hygiene was observed, the risk to healthy people should be minimal. The live interview was over in less than three minutes! John was thanked by the Nottingham BBC team and they said that he had been very clear and that the interview would be repeated at the next news update.

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