If one had to design an environment likely to cause a food poisoning outbreak, a badly organised outdoor music food festival, lacking adequate food hygiene controls, would tick many boxes.
This summer’s Download Festival, which brought 75,000 rock and metal fans to Donnington Park in Leicestershire in June, appears to have been a well-run event. Organisers Live Nation pre-vetted food sellers and required safety inspections before and throughout the festival. EHOs from North West Leicestershire District Council (NWLDC) carried out onsite safety checks, with revisits to ensure compliance. Two food vendors were closed by the organisers over the weekend. Despite these measures, a food poisoning outbreak struck the festival.
Vomiting and severe stomach cramps were reported. Performer Sean Smith of Raiders was hospitalised and received intravenous fluids. A spokesperson for NWLDC said that there had been four calls from festival attendees and that six people became unwell at the weekend. However, online, there are claims that up to 500 people were affected.
Theories have circulated on social media but, so far, the cause of the outbreak has not been identified. Paul Sanders, head of community services at NWLDC, said: “We are aware of reports of people feeling unwell and will continue to investigate. However, we have not received any confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to the festival to date.”
Multiple variables
Given the multiple variables involved in 75,000 people setting up a town under canvas in a field and buying food from 140 vendors, it’s possible that the cause won’t be found – it wasn’t for the food poisoning outbreak at the Reading Festival in 2022. Food poisoning in the UK is hugely under-reported. For every case of intestinal infectious disease officially notified, it’s estimated that there are 147 cases in the community.
Independent Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner Dr Lisa Ackerley notes: “One thing we need to consider is that symptoms of food poisoning don’t necessarily mean it was contaminated food that was the problem. Festivals can be mud baths in fields previously used for livestock, with poor sanitation facilities helping infections such as norovirus to run rife.”
Ackerley has worked for local authorities, central government and the private sector. She has appeared as an on-screen expert in TV series including the BBC’s Watchdog, Rogue Restaurants, The Secret Tourist and Holiday Hit Squad. She knows about festival food safety, both from the point of view of an enforcement officer and a consultant.
Vendors can cut corners
She observes, from firsthand experience, that vendors are pushing out food at great pressure, serving long queues. That can lead to corners being cut, which can manifest in cross-contamination and undercooked food being served. The guests are having a great time and they are hungry. Their guard is down. They may not be as aware of an undercooked burger or raw chicken as much as they would be in another setting.
In addition: “We’ve got a load of people in very close proximity, often using very insanitary toilets, often with little hand-washing going on and restricted access to showers, soap and water. Potentially, it’s a perfect storm.”
UK weather is not optimum – hot sun beating down on the metal vans where food is prepared, displayed and served, and the tents in which it’s eaten, with wind blowing dust around, rain turning fields into quagmires of potentially contaminated mud. We’ve all seen films of smiling hippies sliding through the mud at Woodstock and Glastonbury. This year’s Download, marked by fierce thunderstorms, was re-christened Downpour.
Two potential festival risks, Ackerley notes, are contracting E. coli from the ground and norovirus from people. But campylobacter, salmonella, cryptosporidiosis and giardia are also pathogens that must occupy the attention of organisers and enforcers – each with an optimum route of transmission and its own stratagem for surviving in water, food and the environment and passing illness from person to person.
The good news is pathogens, vectors and risks are well known, all of the normal food safety and environmental health laws apply, and there are paramedics on site. Risks to the public can be significantly reduced.
Pointers for festival safety
1. What was the land used for before the festival? Has livestock been on the land within the last year? The science is not settled, but one study found that E. coli O157 bacteria can survive on grass pasture for at least five months.nt
2. Norovirus, whose symptoms include projectile vomiting, is easily spread when people are in close proximity. Good hand-washing facilities with water and soap are vital. Hand basins and toilets need to be regularly and thoroughly cleaned. Hand gels may not be effective against norovirus.
Ideally, pre-festival instructions would tell people with symptoms of diarrhoea or sickness not to attend, or what to do if they are ill.
3. Water supplies must be potable. How is water collected? Is the transmission of water into containers clean and hygienic? If the site has a private supply, have risk assessment and sampling recently been carried out? Could rain cause contamination?
4. Food safety checks should be carried out before and during the event. What are the vendors like when they have a long queue and are under pressure? Are they cooking to temperature? Site organisers are able to go beyond the law and require vendors to have potable water, wash basins, disinfectants and thermometers before being allowed on site.
5. All legal allergy requirements apply. Vendors must be able to provide information about the 14 allergens.
Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS)
Mobile catering and food safety at festivals:
https://www.ncass.org.uk/news/mobile-catering-and-food-safety-at-festivals/