A multi-year Salmonella outbreak has resulted in more than 400 people in 17 countries falling sick.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said there are 437 confirmed Salmonella Strathcona infections between January 2023 and September 2025.
More than 100 people were sick in Italy and Germany while Austria has 76 cases, the UK has 73, and France has 43. Ten cases have been reported in Canada and 24 in the United States. For the U.S. patients, travel information was available for six of them in 2024. Five visited Italy and one went to Poland prior to disease onset. Seven of the Canadian cases had been to Europe before getting sick.
A recent study in Eurosurveillance put the number of people sick between 2011 and 2024 at 643.
Suspicion on tomatoes
In 2025, 14 countries had 93 confirmed cases ranging in age from less than 1 to 99 years old. Although they were reported throughout the year, the majority were between June and September.
In September 2025, the European Commission asked ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to update the rapid outbreak assessment published in 2024 to trigger further public health and food safety investigations. From January 2023 to 2024, 232 confirmed cases were reported.
Investigations have consistently pointed to tomatoes as the likely source. Recent work in Austria identified small tomatoes from Sicily, Italy, as the source of infection, which is consistent with findings from outbreaks in Italy in 2024 and Austria in 2023. This strain of Salmonella Strathcona has been detected in Europe for more than a decade, with the first outbreak in Denmark in 2011, which was also linked to tomatoes from Sicily.
Italian efforts
Salmonella Strathcona was detected in a sample of irrigation water collected at the site of a tomato producer in Sicily, confirming the role of the environment in tomato contamination.
From September to December 2024, 122 samples were taken from the market in Italy. One sample of cherry tomatoes, originating from Sicily, tested positive for Salmonella Infantis. This led to further investigations and traceback analysis identified an Italian producer, who was inspected. Official sampling at this primary producer in November 2024 led to the detection in January 2025 of Salmonella Strathcona from a sample of irrigation water taken from a well.
National authorities performed an audit in Sicily in November 2024 to assess the effectiveness of regional and local official controls in the production and sale of food of non-animal origin, especially cherry tomatoes.
The main issues found were staff shortages, a lack of systematic inspections and management plans for irrigation water, and inconsistencies in the documentation and control procedures, compromising the effectiveness of official controls and compliance with EU regulation.
The local food agency in Sicily carried out official controls at the premises of tomato producers linked to the outbreak in Tuscany and Umbria but testing revealed no Salmonella.
Other types of Salmonella were detected in water samples and a substrate sample used for tomato cultivation at different producers during checks in November 2024.
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