Wright’s Farm restaurant is open again following a week-long clean up after 30 patrons came down with norovirus after eating there.

According to WPRI a child barfing in the dining room was the cause of the outbreak.

Wright’s owner Frank Galleshaw told Eyewitness News they cleaned and sanitized every inch of the building, and double-washed every utensil and dish.

“Steam cleaned our carpets, rugs, cleaned our kitchen. Cleaned all of the tables, chairs, sanitized everything, sanitized our walls, windows, pictures,” he said. “Then we ran our plates, silverware, salt pepper shakers, we emptied all of those out, and ran everything through our dishwasher two times just to make sure that this place was ready to open up and everything was clean and sanitized.”

Cleaning and sanitizing after vomit events are tricky. The virus particles can spread about 10 feet from the vomit spot and can persist for weeks. Lee-Ann Jaykus and I submitted an issue to be discussed at the Conference for Food Protection about written procedures for cleaning up vomit events to be included in the FDA Model Food Code.