17 now sick with E. coli from Chicago-area restaurant

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Douglas Powell

The number of cases reported in an E. coli outbreak has increased to 9 confirmed cases and 8 probable, DuPage County health officials said Tuesday.

Six of the nine confirmed cases left people hospitalized, but all have been released, said Jason Gerwig, a spokesperson for the DuPage County Health Department.

The Chicago Tribune reports as part of the investigation, a restaurant in Lombard, Los Burritos Mexicanos, 1015 E. St. Charles Rd., remained closed Tuesday.

Marco Arteaga, manager of the restaurant, said the restaurant is cooperating fully in the investigation. He said the cause of the outbreak is puzzling because none of his employees have been sick, and no problems have been reported at the restaurant’s other locations in Villa Park and St. Charles.

He said all the locations use the same food distributors.

10 sick, restaurant closed; E. coli outbreak in Chicago area

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Douglas Powell

The DuPage County Health Department closed a Lombard restaurant in connection with the investigation into four confirmed cases of E. coli in people admitted to a county hospital this week, officials said today.

Jason Gerwig, a public information officer for the DuPage County Health Department, said his agency is looking at a Lombard restaurant as a possible source for the outbreak, and said the restaurant had been temporarily closed at 5 p.m. Friday as part of the investigation. He did not want to name the restaurant until he had received further confirmation that the four people with confirmed cases of E. coli had been there, he said.

Gerwig said the total number of cases confirmed or under investigation is about 10.

He said that it is “unusual” to have a cluster of cases like this, “which is why we are investigating.”

The four confirmed cases were all hospitalized at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, officials said Friday.

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said her agency had confirmed that those four individuals had contracted the same strain of E. coli and that the agency is continuing to study other, related reports of E. coli in that area. She could not confirm how many other cases were involved or if the lab testing will be done this weekend or Monday.

6 sick from Salmonella in Chicago schools, linked to OrganicLife

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Douglas Powell

The Chicago Tribune reports a recent outbreak of salmonella sickened students at five schools in the Chicago suburbs, and health officials have focused their investigation on a commercial kitchen in Wheeling that prepares lunches for the schools.

The children, ages 7 to 14, have recovered, and the outbreak appears to be over, officials said Friday.

The illnesses came to light at a school in southwestern Lake County, where one student became sick Sept. 20 and two others fell ill in the following days. One of those students was hospitalized for four days, but all have recovered, Lake County Health Department epidemiologist Victor Plotkin said.

Five additional cases were found at four schools in northern Cook County, but none required hospitalization, Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman Amy Poore said.

Health officials say they have traced the likely source to the kitchen of a vendor for the schools, OrganicLife in Wheeling, Poore said. Letters were sent to about 100 schools served by the kitchen, alerting them to the outbreak and asking them to look out for symptoms, which typically include diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever.

As of Monday, Poore said, OrganicLife was allowed to provide only hot or prepackaged foods pending an inspection of its kitchen and until all food workers are

OrganicLife markets itself as “the leading provider of healthy lunches in the state of Illinois.” Its website states that it serves more than 1 million meals a month at schools, day cares and universities.

Earlier this month, students at a South Side high school became ill after eating school lunches that had been contaminated with rat droppings.

I have no idea if the outbreaks are related, but rat droppings would be natural.

Ex-Chicago contractor took bribes for food safety certifications, jailed for over 2 years

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Douglas Powell

WLS reports a woman who formerly worked as food inspector for the city of Chicago was sentenced to more than two years in prison Wednesday for taking bribes to obtain food safety certificates for people who had not taken required courses or passed tests.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced Mary Anne Koll to 2 1/2 years in federal prison on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. She will begin her sentence on Dec. 31.

The 69-year-old Burr Ridge resident was convicted last year of conspiracy to commit bribery for accepting at least $96,930 in return for fraudulently arranging to provide bogus certificates for at least 531 people, federal prosecutors charged.

Koll, an independent contractor working as a food inspector for the Chicago Public Health Department, taught state-mandated food sanitation courses and administered exams to people seeking certification between 1995 and 2007, the Dept. of Justice said. The course required 15 hours of training on food safety and sanitation, and state law required all food service establishments to have at least one certified manager on site.

Between June 2004 and June 2007, Koll fraudulently obtained certificates for people who had not attended the course or passed the exam, prosecutors said. Koll, who has since retired, got the certificates by completing the forms herself and submitting them to the IDPH.

Food inspector peddled vitamins to owners of restaurants she inspected

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Douglas Powell

On a cloudy afternoon in September, Chicago health inspector Charity Okoro arrived at Taste of Peru and began pointing out problems.

"She comes into the restaurant really mad, really screaming," recounted co-owner Cesar Izquierdo, according to city documents. He said she accused the restaurant of a handful of violations including cross-contamination for leaving an open can of beer, used for cooking, next to an uncut avocado.

Okoro issued a ticket for about $500 worth of fines but, Izquierdo said, she changed her tone when she learned that he suffers from back problems.

"Right away she stopped screaming, she stopped everything, you know, she stopped the inspection," he told city officials. He said she assured him she could "fix you up."

The very next day Okoro was back. But this time as a vitamin saleswoman.

Izquierdo bought $391 worth of Nutrilite vitamins, according to records. "I was a little intimidated," Izquierdo recalled. "This was the inspector selling them."

Izquierdo and his wife, Julie, said that after the sale was complete the inspector told them the date of their upcoming reinspection and assured them that everything would be fine. When Okoro arrived on the promised date, she didn’t come into the kitchen but issued them a passing grade nonetheless, said Julie Izquierdo.

The Tribune found three other Rogers Park restaurants where owners say Okoro peddled her vitamins. Yet neither the Izquierdos nor any of those owners complained to the city’s Department of Public Health.

Finally, in November, after much deliberation and loss of sleep, Julie Izquierdo decided to report the incident — along with supporting documents — to an administrative law judge when she went to contest the fines. The administrative judge reversed the fines against Taste of Peru, and a city investigation then led to Okoro’s resignation.

The Chicago Tribune reports it’s a sequence of events that lays plain the difficult relationship between the city’s restaurants and its regulators. The city says it welcomes complaints from restaurant owners, whom a Health Department spokeswoman called "our eyes and ears."

But in the course of its investigation, the city did not reach out to any of the restaurants where Okoro tried to sell her vitamins. Meanwhile, some restaurant owners said they assume any concerns they express to the city are likely to fall on deaf ears or, worse, be used against them.

"There is (an assumption) in food business that they will suffer terrible consequences if they step forward," said Logan Square Kitchen owner Zina Murray, who launched a petition last summer to change Health Department policies but said few restaurants would sign it for fear of angering the city.

Inspectors, in particular, hold great power in the restaurant world because a bad report or temporary shutdown can cost owners thousands of dollars and jeopardize business.

Avoid the crab: 97 sick from Bob Chinn’s Crab House in Illinois

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Douglas Powell

When I think Chicago, I think crabs.

Ninety-seven people have been confirmed to have a gastrointestinal illness after eating at Bob Chinn’s Crab House in Wheeling, Illinois, out near the Chicago executive airport, a Cook County Department of Public Health official confirmed this afternoon.

The numbers are likely to go up even more because of the popularity of the restaurant and the volume of people that go through it, health department spokeswoman Amy Poore said.

“We don’t have any kind of confirmation about what the gastrointestinal illness is,” Poore added.

Chinn’s reopened to serve dinner Wednesday evening after the health scare forced the eatery to shut down Tuesday afternoon.

Restaurant general manager Deno Roumanidakis said he closed the eatery voluntarily after receiving calls Monday from a couple of patrons complaining they felt ill after eating at the restaurant, 393 S. Milwaukee Ave.

Anyone who has recently eaten at the restaurant and is experiencing gastrointestinal illness is asked to call (708) 633-8030.

Fancy food ain’t safe food, Chicago edition; does posting restaurant inspection results online do any good

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Douglas Powell

Pete Snyder told the Chicago Tribune he’s not a fan of publishing the results of spot inspections online because "there is no evidence that posting does any good."

Instead, he favors a system where employees are trained by food service managers in controlling safety hazards, then demonstrate their mastery of the procedures to an inspector.

"This is the only effective full-control program," said Snyder, founder of the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management in St. Paul, Minn. "The reason inspectors don’t do this and (instead) simply inspect for things is because it takes too long."

What evidence is there that Pete’s program does any good?

What evidence is there that all those food safety messages repeated ad nauseam, especially during the holidays, do any good? (None)

What evidence is there food safety training programs do any good? (it’s mixed, but fairly lousy; more on that in a month).

In Sept.. 2007, my friend Frank was running food safety things at Disney in Orlando, and asked me to visit and speak with his staff.

“Doug, I want you to talk about food safety messages that have been proven to work, that are supported by peer-reviewed evidence and lead to demonstrated behavior change,” or something like that.

I said it would be a brief talk.

There was nothing – nothing – that could be rigorously demonstrated to have changed food safety behavior in any group, positive or negative. Everything was about as effective as those, ‘Employees must wash hands’ signs.

Chapman finally showed a food safety message can be translated into better food safety practices at food service; but that took direct video observation. After exposure to food safety infosheets, cross-contamination events went down 20 per cent, and handwashing attempts went up 7 per cent. We controlled for various factors as best we could.

Pete is right in that “there’s no evidence that posting does any good” but only because there’s no evidence that most things do any good.

I want to figure out how to best collect evidence that is compelling and meaningful, right or wrong.

We’ve reviewed the literature, we’ve trialed a disclosure program in New Zealand, and compiled a lot of anecdotal evidence from restaurant patrons and managers who say public disclosure of inspection grades keeps everyone awake. It can’t be linked to lower or higher rates of foodborne illness, despite some attempts to do so, but public disclosure does seem to insert some consideration of microbial food safety into a national conversation of food that is dominated by porn.

I haven’t figured out how to measure that.

Snyder did say that a restaurant with multiple, back-to-back failed inspections is "an indication the manager isn’t paying attention."

Chicago politico says public may not understand restaurant inspection results

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Douglas Powell

For over a decade, I’ve ben hearing how the public – whoever that is – may not understand restaurant inspection results.

There’s only a couple of things I tell my kids, especially the 3-year-old: anyone who says, “trust me” is immediately untrustworthy, and anyone who claims to be speaking on behalf of the public, or all Americans or all Canadian women is only talking about themselves (I also tell the kids to keep your stick on the ice and don’t take wooden nickels).

CBS reports that as the City of Chicago has rolled out a new Web site with thousands of restaurant inspection results online, alderman Tom Tunney, who is a restaurant owner himself, says some people may get the wrong impression.

The point that Tunney makes is that the inspection reports online require a little study and not just a glance.

Then do some research and figure out what people and food service operators want instead of saying how hard it is.

Tainted desserts sicken 100, Illinois bakery pulls products

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Sucks to be in public health in Illinois these days. Maybe there’s sprouts on cupcakes in some new foodie trend.

The Illinois Dept. of Public Health announced today that over 100 people in at least four separate outbreaks have been sickened with Staphylococcus aureus after dining on desserts from Rolf’s Patisserie, a wholesale and retail sales bakery in Lincolnwood, just outside Chicago. No mention of the outbreaks on the company website.

Some became ill after eating the desserts at an unnamed restaurant while others were sickened after a holiday party, a catered party or company event.

Initial laboratory tests shows one food item to be contaminated with high levels of, a bacteria that produces toxins in foods that can make people ill. The bacteria can spread if a person with a staph infection has an uncovered lesion or sore that comes in contact with food or food processing equipment, the release said.

Sprouts again: 46 sick with salmonella

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Douglas Powell

The Chicago Tribune reports Illinois health officials are investigating a salmonella outbreak that’s sickened nearly 50 people in nine counties.

  The Illinois Department of Public Health says many of the people who have become ill have reported eating alfalfa sprouts at Jimmy John’s restaurants.

  IDPH officials say alfalfa sprout producers and suppliers are being investigated, and produce testing is ongoing.   

The health department has received reports of 46 people falling ill since Nov. 1.   

barfblog

safe food from farm to fork

Tag Archives: chicago