Food poisoning suspects to be named

38 people have been hospitalised as a result of the stomach bug. Photo / Thinkstock

A list of foods suspected of causing a painful food poisoning epidemic will be released to the public tomorrow, following continued questions from the public, the Government says.

There have been 127 confirmed cases of yersinia pseudotuberculosis and 38 people have been taken to hospital because of the bug.

Environmental and Scientific Research (ESR) provided reports to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) last week updating the possible source of the stomach bug.

The ministry had refused to release the list to the public, but on Monday Foodstuffs confirmed two of its products -- Pams Fresh Mesclun Salad Lettuce and Pams Fresh Express Lettuce -- were named in one of the ESR reports.

Neither of those products were still on the shelves.

Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew said the list was not initially released because it showed no definitive cause for the illness.

"But we will now release it so that the public can also see that, given that they are still asking questions, and I understand that."

When asked why the list was not released on Monday, Ms Goodhew said they wanted to make sure the report was ready for release.

"We're being proactive about this because we think the public needs to see that really the report does not draw any definitive answers in terms of what products [caused the illness]."

Authorities were continuing to look at the correlation between what affected people had said they had eaten and the cases of the illnesses, she said.

"So we're left speculating and at the moment we don't have any definitive answer and we may not, but we will continue to see if we can narrow it down."

Ms Goodhew said MPI and Ministry of Health officials were talking about releasing the two ESR documents tomorrow.

MPI deputy director of general regulation and assurance Scott Gallacher earlier said the outbreak peaked in September and no new cases had been confirmed since September 30.

John Seymour of Horticulture NZ and Vegetables NZ said consumers had been avoiding bagged lettuce and bagged carrots.