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Raspberry dessert ‘kills’ Swedish pensioners

Two Swedes from a nursing home in Ljungby in southern Sweden have died after a raspberry dessert apparently caused an outbreak of food poisoning affecting more than 60 pensioners.

Published: 4 May 2015 15:27 CEST

Raspberry dessert 'kills' Swedish pensioners

Not the raspberry dessert in question. Photo:TT

Dozens of people at the elderly care home became sick over the weekend, after eating a dessert which contained frozen raspberries.

It is suspected that the fruits became contaminated during the packing process, when boxes of the red berries were hand-packed by a worker who was carrying a winter vomiting bug virus.

Two pensioners were taken to hospital where they later died and another patient who was admitted was still recieving treatment on Monday afternoon. Up to ten staff members were also understood to have become ill, with extra workers called in to help provide cover.

According to Carina Karlund, a spokesperson for Ljungby municipality, tests are still being carried out to determine the exact cause of the deaths. But she confirmed to the TT news agency that there had been a food poisoning outbreak and said that many of the home's frail residents were susceptible to picking up viruses and infections as a result of existing weak health.

"It is very unfortunate when they get upset stomachs since it takes an extra toll on them," she said.

"Vomiting and diarrhoea in older people who already have multiple illnesses can affect their health a lot," Rosa Morales, head nurse in Ljungby added.

"We dealt with it from the beginning as if it was winter vomiting disease, but we still do not know for sure if it is," she told TT.

Brunnsgårdens, the catering company which supplied the raspberries is continuing to be used by the care home, but ingredients delivered in recent days are being excluded from dishes.

Pensioners who have so far avoided falling sick have been urged to stay inside their rooms to avoid being infected.

The municipality's infection control unit was carrying out further tests on the raspberries on Monday.

Sweden's national food agency (Livmedelsverket) advised people concerned about being infected by any other potential batches of frozen berries to boil them before including them in recipes, to help kill any viruses they might be carrying.

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.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

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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