Tuesday 13 September 2022 12:25 AM Vulnerable are advised to avoid eating smoked fish over food poisoning risk trends now

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Older people and pregnant women should avoid smoked fish because of a rare chance of getting listeria food poisoning, experts have warned.

Ready-to-eat smoked fish, such as smoked salmon, can harbour bacteria that causes listeriosis.

In most people, listeriosis has no symptoms or only causes minor problems such as aches and pains or diarrhoea.

But for babies, older people or those with a weakened immune system, listeriosis can lead to serious and life-threatening problems such as sepsis or meningitis.

And getting listeriosis while pregnant could cause a miscarriage or stillbirth.

There have been 14 recorded cases of listeriosis since 2020, eight of them since January this year as part of an ongoing outbreak in the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said.