By Richard Torné
Seven workers at a Vera fish processing firm are under investigation pending possible public health and fraud charges following a food poisoning outbreak in which 105 people fell ill from eating contaminated tuna.
Consumers from eight Spanish regions and four EU countries were struck down with scombroid poisoning in May after eating defrosted, yellowfin tuna, as reported in this paper. Scombroid or scombrotoxic poisoning causes allergy-like symptoms, including skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches. In response, the authorities closed the processing plant at the firm Garciden and confiscated thousands of kilos of suspect tuna.
The Guardia last week revealed the results of the five-month long investigation, concluding that the extent of the contamination was much greater than initially feared, with six batches and not two found to contain high levels of the toxin, histamine.
