In 2010, the Environment Centre collected samples of about 200 raw ingredients altogether, which included cooked meat, slices of ham, vegetables and seafood. The study found 71 percent of those to be of good hygienic quality, 9 percent of passable quality and 20 percent outright bad.
Meat was particularly plagued with problems—many colonies of aerobic bacteria were found in those samples, according to food inspector Vilja Iivonen, who published the study on Tuesday.
“Most worryingly, disease-causing listeria was also found in the samples. On the other hand, it helps that the bacteria die in the oven at temperatures of over 72 degrees,” she notes.
Seafood turned up the best results: only seven percent of the samples were of poor quality.
Hot summer at fault?
The outcome is partially explained by the fact that storage temperatures were too high at the time.
“We started taking samples in the summer of 2010, when it was really hot. This made an impact in that the temperature was too high for nearly half the samples,” Iivonen says.
According to Iivonen, this year samples will be taken from places that earlier yielded poor results.
