STEC outbreaks in Belgium: what the food industry needs to know
The recent STEC outbreaks in Belgian residential care centres, with dozens of people falling ill and several deaths, are a painful reminder of how vulnerable our food chain still is. For producers, commercial kitchens and care institutions, this is not a distant problem, but a stark warning: protection against Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, or STEC for short, requires a consistent approach throughout the entire chain, from farm to plate.
What makes STEC so dangerous?
STEC are E. coli strains that produce shigatoxins. An infection can range from mild diarrhoea to bloody diarrhoea. In some cases, a serious complication arises: haemolytic uraemic syndrome, better known as HUS. This syndrome mainly affects young children and the elderly and is characterised by a combination of anaemia, a shortage of blood platelets and acute kidney failure. Thanks to intensive medical care, the mortality rate is now low. However, a significant proportion of patients continue to suffer from kidney problems or high blood pressure.
How does HUS develop?
The disease develops when someone consumes contaminated food or water containing STEC. The bacteria settle in the intestine, producing toxins that enter the bloodstream and damage the blood vessels in the kidneys in particular. This causes small blood clots to form, which cause anaemia and damage kidney tissue. The first symptoms usually appear five to ten days after an episode of diarrhoea and develop into symptoms such as reduced urine production, paleness, bruising, swelling and, in severe cases, even neurological symptoms.
Recent outbreaks in Belgium
At the end of August and beginning of September 2025, residents of at least six residential care centres in Flanders were infected with STEC. Several people died as a result. Cases were also confirmed in Brussels and Wallonia. Investigations by the FASFC, Sciensano and the Department of Health are still ongoing. The focus is on insufficiently heated meat products, cross-contamination in commercial kitchens and possibly also raw milk dairy products or fresh vegetables that came into contact with contaminated water or manure as a source of infection.
The figures do not lie
In 2023, Europe recorded more than 10,000 STEC infections – the highest number ever.
Belgium recorded 14 outbreaks with 48 cases in the same year, compared to 5 outbreaks in 2022.
HUS is particularly frequent in young children under the age of five: up to 4.5 cases per 100,000.
Worldwide, nearly three million infections and thousands of HUS cases are attributed to STEC every year.
Why the source is often difficult to find
Identifying the exact source of an STEC outbreak is a complex process. The incubation period is often almost a week. By the time patients finally seek medical help , the suspect products have often already disappeared from the shelves, simply because their shelf life is shorter. In addition, people eat a wide variety of foods in a short period of time, making it difficult to identify which product is responsible. Food distribution is often complex. A single contaminated batch can therefore have spread to dozens of locations. In addition, STEC is not a single bacterium, but a collective name for many variants. Only through extensive molecular techniques such as whole genome sequencing can patients with the same strain be linked to each other. This combination of factors explains why investigations often take weeks and sometimes fail to identify a definitive source.
More outbreaks in the summer: coincidence or not?
The peak in food infections in the summer is no coincidence. Higher temperatures cause bacteria to multiply much faster. At the same time, people eat more often outside or at events, where cold chains are less strict and meat is sometimes not cooked thoroughly enough. The holiday period also brings with it more international travel, and therefore exposure to other food chains. Animals excrete more STEC in their manure during the summer, increasing the pressure on slaughter and production chains. The harvest period for fruit and vegetables also plays a role, as irrigation with contaminated surface water increases the risk of contamination.
Hygiene on the farm
Cattle are a natural reservoir of STEC. They do not usually become ill themselves, but they do excrete the bacteria in their manure. The intensity of this depends on factors such as diet, age, season and farm management. Farmers can significantly reduce the risk of infection by implementing strict stable hygiene measures: rapid and correct removal of manure, keeping lying areas clean, hygienic drinking and feeding management, and limiting contact with other herds. These measures reduce the risk of animals and ultimately carcasses becoming infected. However, it is impossible to completely rule out infection. Further down the chain, it is crucial to keep a constant eye on the risk of STEC and to strictly apply appropriate control measures.
Farm-to-fork approach for the food industry
A chain-wide approach is necessary. Food companies would do well to critically screen high-risk raw materials such as beef, raw milk dairy products and leafy vegetables. Within the production process, STEC risks must be explicitly included in the hazard analysis, with attention to critical steps such as slaughter, meat processing and heating.
Achieving a core temperature of at least 70 degrees for two minutes remains the gold standard for inactivating STEC. Do not be misled: the fact that a product is heated later in the process does not mean that measures earlier in the chain are less important. The combination of time and temperature is based on an average level of STEC contamination. If the bacterial concentration is too high before heating, even correct heating may be insufficient and the risk of food infections will remain. This concerns core temperature and time, not theoretical process settings. How quickly heat penetrates to the core varies greatly from product to product, making assumptions dangerous. Only a thorough and substantiated in-line process validation can demonstrate that the steps applied are truly safe in practice. Without that certainty, you run the risk of your products posing a threat rather than a guarantee of quality.
Tip: Our experts at Normec Foodlab/Foodcontrol offer tailor-made and practical solutions for performing effective process validations: theoretical models are tested with surrogate organisms and your company-specific conditions, so that it becomes clear whether heating steps are also effective under real conditions. Thanks to the flexibility of the laboratory, even analytical conditions, such as temperature, can be tailored to the unique needs of your process.
Equally important is the strict separation of raw and ready-to-eat products and the prevention of cross-contamination through staff and material hygiene. Water quality also plays a crucial role in the vegetable chain.
Tip: Want to know more about water quality? Download the White Paper on Sustainable Water Management.
Clear communication
Clear communication with consumers and caterers is crucial. Preparation instructions must clearly state that high-risk foods such as minced meat products must be cooked thoroughly. For products consumed raw, such as tartare or carpaccio, targeted risk communication is necessary, and where possible, alternatives or process adjustments should be considered. Monitoring and traceability complete the picture: only with a rapid and efficient recall can the damage be limited in the event of an outbreak.
Accredited analyses play a crucial role in the prevention of STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli). They guarantee that the test results are reliable, reproducible and carried out in accordance with international quality standards. This is essential for the timely identification and control of risks in the food chain. Normec Foodcontrol has taken a leading role in this area: it was the first laboratory in Belgium to be officially accredited for STEC analyses, confirming its leading position in food safety and quality assurance.
Tip: With a solid monitoring plan, you can guarantee food safety and verify that your products comply with food safety standards. Contact the experts at Normec Labs for accredited STEC analyses that guarantee reliable results.
Extra attention for healthcare institutions
The current outbreaks show that commercial kitchens and residential care centres need to be extra vigilant. These are home to the most vulnerable groups, who are at much greater risk of serious illness. Strict control of cooking and cooling chains, consistent separation of raw and prepared food, and accurate traceability down to the portion level are not a luxury but a necessity.
Tip: Hygiene and GMP/GHP inspections in commercial kitchens provide assurance that the measures taken are being implemented correctly on a daily basis. An external perspective, such as the audits and inspections carried out by Normec Foodcare, helps to identify and prevent potential problems at an early stage.
Conclusion
STEC remains a zoonotic risk that cannot be completely eliminated from the food chain. The recent outbreaks in Belgium underscore how quickly an infection can have serious consequences, especially in healthcare institutions. Only a farm-to-fork approach, in which every link in the chain takes responsibility, can reduce the risk of new incidents. For the food industry ( ), this means that constant vigilance, process discipline and clear communication are essential to protect consumers and patients.