Venus cafe owner Maree Little cried yesterday as she spoke of the devastation of knowing food prepared at her Hobart, Tasmania, eatery had made at least 79 people seriously ill, including mourners at funerals which her business had catered for.

She too became ill after eating food from the cafe, which had been made unknowingly with contaminated eggs.

The Tasmania Mercury reports that Little felt compassion for all those who had been sick, including her five-year-old granddaughter and five Venus staff who were all hospitalized, adding

"I want to sincerely apologise to all of our loyal customers, staff and other members of the community who’ve fallen ill as a result of eating food from Venus café. We profoundly regret that our business has been associated with this salmonella outbreak and we feel for everyone who has been admitted to hospital, or become sick as a result of eating at our cafe. It has devastated me and the staff as well. Our heart certainly goes out to those (sick) people because we know what they are going through."

The apology came after the Mercury revealed a 66-year-old Hobart man was struck down with salmonella after lunching at Venus and spent the past 12 days in hospital.

The hospitalised man was finally able to go home yesterday and said he was grateful that Venus had apologized.

The Health Department has confirmed the outbreak at Venus was caused by an aioli salad dressing and dipping sauce which was made from raw eggs.

The contaminated food was served in the cafe on January 24-25 and at several catered functions including funerals at Millingtons in Mornington.

Ms Little had to ruin her nice apology by saying it was unfortunate that her business had unknowingly used contaminated eggs provided by an external egg supplier, and that her business, which she had run for 16 months, would not use raw egg in any product ever again, and that,

"Our business is as much a victim as those people who have fallen ill as a result of eating contaminated food. The harm to our business and reputation is devastating, but the most important thing is the health of our customers, staff and loved ones and we sincerely hope they are able to make a full recovery as soon as possible."

Don’t eat raw eggs. Don’t eat poop.