Two women died after eating chicken mayo sandwiches from a Salford food supplier which were contaminated with listeria, an inquest has concluded.
Retired nurse Beverley Sowah, 57, and mother-of-five Enid Heap, 84, were given the sandwiches on successive days while patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) in 2019.
Both women, who both had underlying health problems, died within days, the joint inquest into the death of the women heard at Manchester Coroner’s Court.
Following the five-day inquest, the jury concluded the listeria bacteria entered the food chain at cooked meat processing firm North Country Quality Foods in Salford.
They supplied the contaminated chicken to sandwich-making firm the Good Food Chain (GFC), based in Stone, Staffordshire, which used it to produce chicken mayo sandwiches.
These were then supplied to Sodexo, who were contracted to supply the NHS trust running the MRI, and the sandwiches were fed to Mrs Sowah and Mrs Heap.
Both women acquired listeria from the contaminated food which more than minimally contributed to their deaths, jurors decided.
Earlier the inquest heard North Country Quality Foods (NCQF) was found to be the earliest point in the supply chain where listeria matching the outbreak strain was detected.
The inquest heard there are safe levels of listeria and it is a widespread, common bacteria, with various different strains, with the legal limit of 100 cfu/g (colony-forming units per gram).
A month after the women’s deaths, as public health officials investigated, a sealed bag of chicken products supplied from NCQF to GFC was tested and found to have an “unprecedented high level” of the same strain of listeria involved in the outbreak.
The level of listeria found in the diced chicken bag was 1000 cfu/g, 10 times the legal limit.
Also, another customer of NQCF had a supply of bacon from them which when tested also had the outbreak strain of listeria involved in the hospital deaths.
Public health investigations immediately linked the two MRI deaths because they were at the same hospital and both patients had consumed the same sandwiches.
They then worked backwards to source the sandwich supplier and who had supplied the meat for the sandwiches.
Alistair Heap, Mrs Heap’s son, commented: “We lost her more than five years ago, and our grief at her loss was exacerbated when we were informed that her death was linked to listeria reported to have come from a sandwich consumed whilst she was in hospital.
“We are also grateful that the case has highlighted the importance that businesses involved in food processing should maintain a strict standard of care and be subject to rigorous testing when supplying foods to the public, particularly to vulnerable groups in hospital environments.”
Both meat supplier and sandwich maker firms have since gone into liquidation.
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