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Pork warnings over new stomach illness

A new stomach bug, which primarily spreads via infected pork, has increased in Sweden in the last four years. Small children are thought to be particularly at risk.

Published: 7 January 2006 14:45 CET

The Swedish Food Administration has recommended new routines for the slaughter of pigs, while health experts are advising Swedes to wash knives and chopping boards that have been used for pork as carefully as if they had been used for chicken.

The bacteria, yersinia, produces the same symptoms as salmonella and is closely related to the bacteria behind the Black Death.

Among children the bacteria can lead to fever, bloody diarrhoea and vomiting, while in adults the effect is usually abdominal pains. Quarter of those affected are under the age of four, and half are under 15.

There were 804 cases of the illness in 2004, an increase of 45% since 2001. Sweden is the third worst-affected country in the EU.

“The bacteria can be found in glands in the neck of the pig and it also appears in the intestine,” said Sven Lindgren, professor in microbiology at the Swedish Food Administration, to TT.

According to Lindgren it is important to tighten the quality of hygiene in slaughterhouses.

“Then the number of cases of the disease will fall,” he said.

The Swedish Food Administration described the rise in cases as “undesirable”, but said that it was not “alarming”.

Since the increase was identified in 2004 no direct measures have been taken by Sweden’s slaughter firms.

“No, routines have not generally been changed,” said Åke Rutegård, managing director of the Swedish Meat Industry Association.

“But on the other hand this is well known among the slaughter companies and the risk is handled with existing routines and individual controls.”

Nevertheless, Rutegård confirmed that the prevalence of the yersinia bacteria was on the agenda at an industry organisation meeting next week.

“We are prepared and can quickly introduce new routines if they are needed,” he said.

Consumers are advised to cook pork thoroughly and carefully.

“But even then the bacteria can be spread if you use the same knife and chopping board for pork and then for other food,” said Yvonne Andersson, head of epidemiology at the Institute for Infectious Diseases, to Svenska Dagbladet.

The hygiene process for pork should be as careful as that for chicken, said experts, including washing hands after preparation.

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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