FSA estimates takeaways and restaurants are responsible for 8% of norovirus cases

“Takeaways fuel spread of norovirus […] Takeaways and restaurant food are to blame for hundreds of thousands of norovirus cases a year.”

The Times, 21 February 2020

“Dangers lurking in your toxic takeaway: Hundreds of thousands left with norovirus from restaurant and takeaway meals as food poisoning cases hit 2.4 million a year.”

Daily Mail, 20 February 2020

“The FSA’s intervention follows shocking new figures on the incidence of food poisoning in the UK. Cases have more than doubled from one million in 2009 to 2.4 million in 2019.”

Daily Mail, 3 March 2020

It is correct that restaurants and takeaways are responsible for hundreds of thousands of norovirus cases each year. However, this only accounts for around 8% of all norovirus cases.

It’s not correct to say that cases of food poisoning doubled between 2009 and 2019. This just reflects an improvement in how the figures are estimated.

The figures on norovirus cases

According to new research by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), there are approximately three million cases of norovirus in the UK every year, which can cause symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting.

Not all norovirus cases are food poisoning. Norovirus can be picked up from eating food, but can also be passed from person-to-person or caught from a contaminated environment.

In total, around 13% of all norovirus cases are linked to food consumption (380,000), and two  thirds of these (around 240,000) are caused by food from restaurants or takeaways.

Professor Guy Poppy, chief scientific adviser to the FSA, said the risk to consumers “remains very low”.

On average, consumers of takeaways or catered food would get norovirus from one in every 2,000 meals.

By comparison, open-headed lettuce caused 30% of all food-caused norovirus cases (114,000) but the risk was lower, with one instance of norovirus for every 15,000 portions consumed. Oysters pose the highest risk per serving, with one in every 160 servings leading to norovirus, but this equates to just 3% of all food-caused norovirus cases.

The figures were published by the FSA after a five-year study into the extent of norovirus in food. 

The figures on food poisoning

The FSA also looked at the foodborne illnesses in general, estimating that there are 2.4 million cases every year in the UK, up from the 2009 estimate of 1 million.

However, it is incorrect to claim that this shows food poisoning is rising. The FSA said the figures “do not indicate an increase in total illness, or any new risk to public health” but are simply a “better estimation” of the proportion of infectious intestinal disease caused by food.

The 380,000 cases of norovirus linked to food consumption make up 16% of this  total.