Five charged after deadly Bongkrekic acid outbreak

[Mary Wilson]

By News Desk on January 23, 2025

Five people have been charged in relation to a fatal food poisoning outbreak that occurred last year in Taiwan.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office announced the charges after investigating the incident at the Polam Kopitiam restaurant.

The outbreak led to at least 33 cases and six deaths in March 2024. The rare toxin, Bongkrekic acid, which is produced by the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli pathovar cocovenenans, was responsible for illnesses. ...

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/01/five-charged-after-deadly-bongkrekic-acid-outbreak/

[Mary Wilson]

Burkholderia gladioli and bongkrekic acid: An under-recognized foodborne poisoning outbreak -
Journal of Infection

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Volume 89, Issue 1106182 July 2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106182

Chih-Cheng Lai^a,b ∙ Jiun-Ling Wang^c,d ∙ Po-Ren Hsueh^e,f

Dear Editor,
We read with interest the report by He et al.¹ describing a foodborne cluster event attributed to Vibrio parahaemolyticus, underscoring the importance of food safety. Likewise, Bongkrekic acid (BA), produced by the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli pathovar cocovenenans (B. cocovenenans), is a lethal toxin implicated in outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with coconut- and corn-based products.² The outbreak of foodborne BA poisoning has been rarely reported in Indonesia, China, and Mozambique. Recently, the first outbreak of BA-related food poisoning occurred at the end of March 2024 in a Taipei restaurant, resulting in several deaths.³ This event underscores the critical importance of food safety. However, BA might be an unrecognized cause of toxic outbreaks and our understanding of foodborne BA and B. cocovenenans has been limited due to the rarity. Therefore, we conducted this comprehensive review to provide updated information about this rare yet fatal toxin—BA and its association with B. cocovenenans. ...

https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(24)00116-6/fulltext