Norway has reported its largest foodborne outbreak in almost 50 years with 230 people sick.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said 105 people are infected with Salmonella Newport and 120 with Salmonella Typhimurium. The remaining five are infected with other types of Salmonella.

Patients became ill from mid-October to mid-December 2024. They range in age from less than 1 to 90 years old with a median age of 47.5 years old. A total of 159 patients are women and 76 people have been hospitalized.

Sick people live in different parts of the country but Vestland has the most patients with more than 70.

Seeds from Italian supplier
Umaer Naseer, acting section head of infection control and emergency preparedness at FHI, said there has been a large increase in sick people from when the agency last reported on the outbreak in December 2024 when 49 people were ill.

“This is not unexpected as it takes time from sampling of those who have become ill to the final results of the laboratory analyses. Most of the infected people became ill in the period between November and December 2024, around the time of the withdrawal of organic alfalfa sprouts.”

In November 2024, organic alfalfa sprouts were withdrawn from the market by Norske Spirer because of suspected Salmonella contamination. Seeds used in sprout production came from a large Italian company, which also supplied other EU countries.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) and Norwegian Veterinary Institute have detected...