Salmonella bacteria live in the gut and are mainly spread via food that is eaten without being properly heated.
In Sweden, less than one percent of all food and food-producing animals are infected with salmonella. It differs from several other countries in Europe, where the infection is often found in, for example, raw chicken and eggs.
Every year around 3,000 people are affected in Sweden, most of whom are infected abroad. Typical symptoms are abdominal pain, fever and diarrhea.
You can reduce the risk of getting sick by washing vegetables thoroughly, practicing good hygiene when cooking and heating the food until it becomes piping hot. Salmonella bacteria die at temperatures above 70 degrees.
Salmonella is very uncommon in Swedish eggs, but at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, eggs from a large Swedish egg producer were recalled due to salmonella.
Source: The Public Health Agency and the Swedish Food Agency.