The fall-out from Britain’s largest E.Coli outbreak transmitted from farm animals illustrates just how devastating such bugs can be.

So far, a total of 36 cases have been confirmed by the Health Protection Agency but some estimates suggest that up to 20,000 children could have been put at risk by delays in closing Godstone Farm, in Surrey, where the outbreak occured.

Closer to home, an investigation into an outbreak of a rare food poisoning bug at a restaurant in Ilkley has recommended a string of changes to prevent the Giardia Lamblia parasite emerging in the district again. E.Coli was also found at the now-defunct Saffron restaurant after 64 diners were taken ill.

Aside from the obvious medical connection between the cases, what links them is a clear disregard for the well-being of customers exhibited at both establishments.

The owners of the now-defunct Saffron restaurant in Ilkley were last month given suspended sentences and rightly banned for life from working with food after admitting 12 breaches of food hygiene laws and six counts of selling food unfit for human consumption. It is not yet known what action, if any, will be taken against the farm owners but, surely, they could have prevented a great deal of misery by closing the place much earlier?

There is, of course, a third link between the cases: both sets of owners were very lucky. If, as has been the case with other E.Coli outbreaks, someone had died, the outcome for them could also have been very different.