Could Clostridium difficile be circulating in hospitals through food? A new report suggests, yes.

Houston researchers found that about one-fourth of nearly 100 hospital food samples they tested were positive for C. diff. Among the worst culprits: turkey, chicken, and egg products, vegetables and fruits, and desserts. Almost all were cooked.

It’s only one hospital. And no cases of human infection were linked to the food.

But together with past research, the findings suggest that contaminated food may be an important route of spread of C. diff in hospitals, says researcher Hoonmo Koo, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Moreover, the temperatures at which hospital foods are cooked may be too low to kill the bug, he says.

An infectious diseases expert not involved with the research says the major C. diff strains that contaminate food are different from the ones responsible for human disease.

“You should be more concerned about whether your doctor or nurse is washing their hands before touching you than about anything coming up from the cafeteria,” says Stuart Cohen, MD, professor of medicine at the University of California School of Medicine, Davis. Contaminated hands are a proven risk factor for infection.

The new study was presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in San Diego.