There is an ongoing salmonella outbreak in Europe. This is revealed in a report published by the EU Agency for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (ECDC) in collaboration with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The investigations were conducted over three years, from 2023 to 2025, and identified those responsible for the spread of the infection: Sicilian cherry tomatoes.
The document speaks of a “prolonged cross-border outbreak of Salmonella enterica serovar Strathcona ST2559”, with 437 cases confirmed between 2023 and 2025 in 17 European countries and further reports from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. ECDC and EFSA underline that genomic analyzes (WGS) conducted on environmental and clinical samples showed a high genetic correlation, confirming the connection between human cases and the strain detected in irrigation water samples in Sicily.
The report concludes by warning consumers, explaining what the hygienic practices are for handling raw foods and how to avoid contamination with other foods. In the meantime, however, the Consortium for the Protection of Pachino PGI Tomatoes wanted to respond: “If there had been a problem of such gravity we would certainly have noticed it, given that we eat our tomatoes every day”. The Ministry of Health, for its part, has strengthened controls and provided a code of conduct for large-scale retail trade.
The outbreak prolonged in 17 countries
The alarm was raised following the emergence of some prolonged outbreaks in 17 countries. From 2023 to 30 September 2025 there have been 437 confirmed cases of Salmonella Strathcona, with reports also coming from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
The most affected countries are:
- Italy with 123 cases;
- Germany with 113 cases;
- Austria with 76 cases.
The investigations focus on Sicilian cherry tomatoes. It had already happened in 2011 with an epidemic developed in Denmark and is repeated today, in 2025, with new investigations conducted in Austria and Italy. From these it emerges that cherry tomatoes from Sicily are the source of the infection. The evidence against the accused is also supported by the fact that Italy is among the countries most affected and among those most visited by the cases that emerged in the last two years of investigations.
According to the report, the Strathcona strain was isolated not only in tomatoes and irrigation water, but also in environmental samples such as soil, mud, molluscs and waterways, confirming the environmental persistence of the bacterium over time and the possibility of recurring contamination in the agricultural production cycle.
Why tomatoes in Sicily?
The Italian Food Safety Authority wanted to conduct in-depth investigations to answer this question. A strain of salmonella was thus detected in a sample of water coming from crop irrigation at a tomato producer in Sicily.
The cause would be climate change, in particular the prolonged drought that occurred in regions such as Sicily, which led to the use of irrigation water that was not particularly clean to safeguard the harvest.
Another problem is the phenomenon of floods, also caused in an increasingly frequent and extreme manner by climate change, which would have resulted in the mixing of sewage with irrigation water, creating complications for agricultural producers in respecting correct hygiene practices.
In this way, at least in the case analyzed, the role of the Sicilian countryside environment as a source of contamination of the vegetable, which is among the most exported in Europe, is confirmed.
What have the authorities done up to this point?
However, it is not a mystery. Starting from 2023, the European Commission has invested a lot of resources in health checks on agricultural production and in the code of conduct for first-range products.
Already with the circular of 30 October 2024, the Ministry of Health had ordered that, in large-scale retail trade, these products be displayed on separate shelves (compared to already washed bagged products), clearly indicating the need for washing before consumption.
The new report does this, it puts in black and white the phenomenon of prolonged salmonella infection, but not only that. In fact, it recommends a more conscious consumption of raw plant foods and pushes to strengthen controls during the production, marketing and administration phases.
In the latest tests conducted by the National Food Safety Authority, with the support of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, significant improvements were confirmed. The ECDC writes that the latest audit conducted in Sicily identified “significant improvements in terms of personnel, regional coordination, data management and official control activities”, but that “inefficiencies remain from the point of view of irrigation water management plans, a long-standing problem of the Region”. A historic critical issue for Sicily, even if accompanied by slow but concrete progress in the management of controls.
The response of the producers
The Consortium for the protection of Pachino PGI tomatoes says it is saddened by yet another attack on Italian products. Explain that:
One cannot help but notice how the attacks on Italian tomatoes have increasingly intensified, as if there were a strategy to destroy a product that the whole world envies us.
He adds that the unfair competition implemented by non-EU countries, which flood Europe with tomatoes at prices that are unsustainable for the Italian labor system, is crushing production and making it increasingly difficult for local companies to survive.
In the case of the report, the president of the Consortium Sebastiano Fortunato wanted to underline that if there had been a problem of such gravity “we would certainly have noticed it, given that we eat our tomatoes every day”.
In the Ecdc-EFSA report, however, no reference is made to individual companies or consortia and none of the producers belonging to the Consortium for the protection of Pachino PGI tomatoes is the subject of measures or direct reports.
