So where was it from?

Jaana Husu-Kallio, Director-General of the Finnish Food Authority, says that the salmonella discovered by Russian officials in poultry cannot have originated in Finland.

The Russian authorities reported on the finding in a letter sent to Husu-Kallio on Wednesday. The news agency Itar-Tass reported on Tuesday evening that Russia had found salmonella in a lot of chicken wings delivered by the Finnish meat packing company HK Ruokatalo.

Finnish officials point out that salmonella has been almost eradicated from Finnish poultry. An even greater surprise was that the discovery was of the Salmonella Chingola variety, which has never been detected in Finnish poultry. The only time that it was found in Finland was in 1999, in a person who had contracted it in another country.

"I dare say that the discovery cannot be of Finnish origin. It is my task now to convince my Russian colleagues of this. Esa Mäki, CEO of HK Ruokatalo also says that he is convinced that the products of his company are not tainted with salmonella. He says that production units, slaughterhouses, and products are checked closely, and nothing suspicious has been found in any of the samples.