When toxoplasma in pork ranked second in last year’s top 10 riskiest combinations of foods and disease-causing microorganisms at $1.2 billion a year, some wondered, what?

Now the Brits have chirped in, saying much more needs to be known about Toxoplasma gondii in the country’s food and especially the impact on pregnant women.

The UK Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Advisory Committee of the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) is seeking stakeholder views on its draft report relating to toxoplasma in the food chain (available at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/consultation/criskprotoxoplasmafoodchain.pdf).

According to the UK National Health Service (NHS), food sources include undercooked or raw meat, raw cured meat (including Parma ham, salami) and unpasteurised goat’s milk, and the infection can pass between humans from a pregnant woman to an unborn baby.

Although toxoplasmosis usually only causes mild flu-like symptoms in adults, the ACMSF said it can be fatal to babies, and has been linked with associated jaundice, eye infections and seizures.

The FSA’s scientific advisory committee was asked to consider whether current evidence indicates a food safety issue that needs to be addressed, what food sources could present a significant risk and identify further work needed on UK prevalence and foodborne sources of toxoplasmosis.