Health Protection Scotland has found that raw venison distributed by a Dundee game supplier may be the cause of an E.coli outbreak which has affected at least nine people in Scotland and may well lead to consumer injury claims.

However, the company concerned argued that there is no evidence to suggest that its products are behind the outbreak; this is despite the fact that nine people with confirmed cases of E.coli claim to have become ill as a result of cooking and eating the venison products in their homes.

A spokesperson from Food Standards Scotland said that the products, which have use-by dates from between, 4 September to 1 October, was safe provided that consumers cooked and handled the meat in accordance with the recommended food hygiene procedures.

The organisation added that it was working with the distributor concerned to ensure that all appropriate health and safety measures are being taken. Furthermore, the distributor said that it was giving "every assistance" to investigators. It added that "venison has an excellent track record of safety and standards, and there is no substantiated evidence to support the actual source of the outbreak".

"Consumers should have every confidence in continuing to eat venison - but we cannot stress enough that storage and cooking instructions should be carefully followed exactly, as with any other meat," commented Stephen Gibbs, chairman of the Scottish Venison Partnership.

There is as yet no news as to whether any of those affected by the E.coli outbreak will be looking to make consumer injury claims.

Thompsons' personal injury solicitors in Scotland have won many awards and have a 90% success rate in the cases we take on. For more information about our services, click here.