ArticleEuro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin2026
Calcium propionate in tortillas - a likely cause of a large outbreak of acute gastrointestinal illness, Finland, 2023.
Article in Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In August 2023, 721 individuals became ill with gastrointestinal symptoms in 17 schools in a Finnish municipality. Of these, 323 (45%) developed quickly passing symptoms during school lunch or < 30 min after the lunch. In a questionnaire-based retrospective cohort study, consumption of flour tortillas and vegetable filling served at lunch were statistically associated with illness (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 3.3; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.4-7.4 for the tortillas and aOR = 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1-2.1 for the filling). Abnormal odour was observed in five of nine tortilla samples. In three samples from tortillas produced during a limited production period, high concentrations of calcium propionate (E 282) were measured (> 24,000 mg/kg), exceeding the regulatory maximum limit of 2,000 mg/kg. The tortillas served at lunch were traced to a manufacturer in another EU country. The manufacturer was unable to identify any cause in the production process that could explain the high concentrations of calcium propionate. Our results are in line with findings from other investigations that excessive calcium propionate can induce gastrointestinal symptoms. The investigation highlights the need for strengthened surveillance of chemical-related food-borne outbreaks in Europe and timely communication between school staff and public health authorities to support rapid outbreak detection and response.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.