San Jose restaurant no longer gettin’ shiggy wit it

Marisco’s San Juan #3 restaurant linked to 200 cases of shigellosis is due to be open for business tomorrow according to KCRA. Although a source of the outbreak wasn’t confirmed, the working theory is that an infected food handler was to blame.

The Department of Environmental Health reinspected Marisco’s San Juan #3, which has been closed since Oct. 18, and approved it for reopening after finding it no longer poses a risk to public health from shigella bacteria, officials said.

County officials said the restaurant’s owners voluntarily discarded all food products on site, cleaned and sanitized the facility and retrained all employees in proper food handling methods. Employees who tested negative for shigella are being allowed to return to work.

Health officials determined that an outbreak of illness connected with the restaurant at 205 N. Fourth St. that caused 190 people to become sick was caused by shigella, a contagious diarrhoeal illness.

The source was most likely from an infected food handler at the restaurant who contaminated the entrees with their hands, officials said. But the exact source of the outbreak has not been determined, and officials have said it might never be identified.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.