New analyzes were carried out today on the food truck believed to be the origin, last summer, of botulinum contamination in Diamante, on the Cosenza Tyrrhenian Sea, which caused the death of two people and the hospitalization of around thirty subjects due to poisoning.
The new samplings on the vehicle were requested by the microbiologist Andrea Crisanti, appointed as a party consultant by the lawyers of the owner of the food truck. The swabs were taken, in agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paola, in the place where the vehicle has been kept since its seizure, and were then sent to the Higher Institute of Health in Rome.
The aim of the investigations carried out today would be to clarify whether the food contamination occurred during the production or administration phase of the finished food at the center of the investigation, turnip greens in oil used to season sandwiches.
The Paola prosecutor’s office has entered 10 people in the register of suspects. In addition to the owner of the food truck, healthcare personnel from the facilities that took care of the intoxicated and later deceased people, and producers of the turnip tops. The various crimes hypothesized are manslaughter, negligent personal injury and trade in harmful food substances.