By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

The South Korea Minister of Food and Drug Safety announced recently that the foodborne pathogen, Yersinia enterocolitica has been detected in more than a dozen samples of kimchi products imported from China.

Image by ally j from Pixabay

Regulators carried out their inspections after troubling footage said to show a cabbage processing plant in China went viral in South Korea earlier this year.

Yersinia enterocolitica – which causes a rare form of food poisoning known as yersiniosis that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention say kills 35 people in

Y. enterocolitica was found on 15 kimchi products imported from China out of a sample of 289, Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said on Tuesday.

Yersiniosis is an infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica. The most common symptoms are diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain, usually lasting 1-3 weeks. The reservoir for the bacterium is primarily pig. Dogs and cats can also be carriers of the bacterium.

Yersinia bacteria are transmitted mainly through food, usually through infected pork products, contaminated vegetables or salads and the use of non-disinfected drinking water.