I’ve been following food porn backlash in the UK as a result of an outbreak of something at quasi-celebrity Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, the Fat Duck.  Today Cold Mud picked up a blog post from one of the walking wounded who experienced  “two weeks of serious unpleasantness”.

The poster writes:

“The only things that felt a bit dodgy on the way down were the oysters. Neither of us is a huge fan, but we both ate them because we were determined not to miss out on anything. Anyway, we were eating in one of the most famous restaurants in the world so we were confident that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with them."

I especially love this quote; it demonstrates the power of trust in food sources — this guy is famous, I have a personal connection, I don’t want to miss out, he wouldn’t make me sick.

At the end of the post, the author discusses the lack of communication between the Fat Duck and ill patrons, and here’s where it all goes really wrong for me:

“The next day I went onto the Fat Duck website and sent them an email. At that point the news bulletins were saying that 40 or so diners had been affected and I wrote something to the effect of: ‘This has happened to us as well. We loved the meal and we’re not angry but count us among the walking wounded and let us know what’s happening.’
“We received no reply so I wrote quite a long letter. I haven’t received a reply to that either. I’m appalled because I was so entranced by Heston Blumenthal and he comes across as being very decent and clever. We had been so ill and, at the very least, we expected some kind of acknowledgment.  We really thought they would be interested in what had happened to us."

Dude, Captain Food Porn Blumenthal, you need to respond to patrons who got sick at your restaurant. It doesn’t matter whether contamination occurred in your restaurant, or if it was something contaminated prior to its arrival (Those dodgy oysters? Fresh sprouts? Whatever).  You are the face and brand associated with that meal. You have folks reaching out to you for info, or just to let you know what happened to them, you need to acknowledge it.  Tell them what you are doing to find out what happened, and how you manage food safety in your organization — especially how you assess safe suppliers.

In last week’s food safety infosheet  (you can download it here) we focused on the fallout of a Staphylococcus aureus outbreak associated with baked hams in Kentucky — a 72-year-old man died and a wrongful death suit has been filed against the operator.  Outbreaks like this one, and the Fat Duck happen all the time. It is on operators to be proactively identify risks with their products, address them and prepare for when things go wrong.  And answer emails from ill patrons. And post something on your website about the outbreak — have that stuff ready to go, because it’s one of the first places people will be looking.