About Us | Bookmark Us     

Tallegg spreading salmonella?

When all else fails, blame the Latvians.

64 children and six employees of the Tõruke kindergarten near Tallinn have contracted salmonellosis in one of the largest-scale cases ever in Estonia. The kindergarten suspects Estonia’s largest poultry firm Tallegg of being the culprit. Tallegg denies the accusation.

On March 2nd, omelets were served to children for lunch, which the kindergarten manager claims were made of eggs from Tallegg. The kindergarten claims health inspectors have now repeatedly visited the kindergarten and determined cooks did not carry the disease and that the kindergarten met all health requirements. The Health Protection Inspectorate has not been able to positively confirm the kindergarten’s accusation, since all the eggs were eaten. Still, they point to the food as the most likely cause.

Tallegg was hit by a major bout of salmonellosis last spring but then the problem was in chicken meat, not eggs. Tallegg suggests the kindergarten may have purchased eggs from the market to get them cheaper, in which case the firm says the eggs may have come from Latvia.

It’s somewhere in the Estonian business manual: When all else fails, blame the Latvians.