The Venus café in Hobart, Tasmania, was the epicenter of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened about 100 people in Feb. 2008.

Seems the owner, Maree Little, didn’t know that raw eggs could carry Salmonella. On Feb. 7, 2008, owner Little cried 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  with raw eggs.

Now, with her business down by 60 per cent, Ms. Little says,

"I would like to have some sort of recognition to our business because we have been caught in all of this, and I would like the government to come out and say we’re thinking about you also, but again that hasn’t happened. I don’t know whether we can demand it but we will, we will consider what appropriate action we need to take, We need to build our business, and that’s what’s important."

The Tasmanian Greens jumped in, calling on the government to develop new protocols to lessen the impact of Salmonella outbreaks on retail food outlets, which have often been devastated by negative publicity despite not being responsible in any way for an outbreak.

Wow. Not sure Salmonella knows which party to vote for.  But if you’re serving food to a bunch of people, don’t use raw eggs.