Fancy food ain’t safe food – NZ edition

As New York City somewhat quietly enacted its first paid sick leave law on April 1, wedding guests and eight serving staff at the exclusive Northern Club in Auckland, New Zealand fell sick in a suspected norovirus outbreak.

The wedding was held at the club in Princes St, central Auckland, on Saturday, March 29. People began to fall ill two days later.
norovirus-2Dr Hoskins said the club had alerted the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

He said the service’s investigation was still in progress, and he did not know last night how many of the 100 guests had become ill.

Contact details had been obtained for 77 guests, of whom 44 had been interviewed.

Club’s president Tenby Powell (no relation) said that although the health service’s investigation had not yet identified the source of the outbreak, “we are very confident it’s got nothing to do with the Northern Club’s food handling processes”.

The eight affected employees were serving staff – “they serve plates” – and none of the food preparation staff had been affected.

Uh-huh.

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time