20 years since Wishaw was hit by the world's worst outbreak of E.Coli
Scores of people, young and old, fell ill after eating products from John Barr butchers in Wishaw.
In November 1996, meat poisoned with E. coli claimed 21 lives in Lanarkshire.
Scores of people, young and old, fell ill after eating products from John Barr butchers in Wishaw - still the world's worst outbreak.
The butcher confessed he had barely even heard of the bug before the tragedy.
The report said there was inadequate training of staff at Barr's shop in Caledonian Road, implicated in the outbreak.
It identified five key failures:
- failure to use temperature probes for cooking raw meat - failure to draw up cleaning schedules to reduce the risk of contamination at the premises - failure to separate completely within the premises processes relating to raw meat and cooked meat - failure to provide separate knives and equipment for each of the separate processes - failure to provide clear management structures and "adequate supervision" to enforce safety measures
Health officials believe they are now winning the war against the bug - despite the fatality of a 3-year-old girl in Bearsden this year.
Tough new rules on food handling and a greater awareness of the dangers appear to be bringing down the number of cases however there's nothing to prevent people becoming extremely sick if they become infected.
The deaths of the 21 people in the food poisoning outbreak twenty years ago clearly devastated many families who mourned the loss of, in some cases, both grand-parents. But for those who survived there are still long-term health consequences.
Clyde News has been speaking to Paul Santoni, who was the lawyer for many of the victims and their families: