36 hospitalizaed in Russian Salmonella outbreak linked to cream puffs

About 66 pounds of cream puffs were removed from stores in the Russian Urals city of Chelyabinsk on Monday after a salmonella outbreak was reported there.

“The police have found 12 outlets selling these products. About 30 kilograms [about 66 pounds] of cream puffs were removed from sale. A working group cream-puffhas been set up to find other outlets. An investigation is under way,” a spokeswoman for the Chelyabinsk region police department told ITAR-Tass.

ITAR-Tass said 36 people, including eight children, were hospitalized with salmonella poisoning in Chelyabinsk, two in serious condition.

Local news sources said as many as 41 people have been sickened, ITAR-Tass reported.

“All these people ate cream puffs sold in a shop at the Kurchatovsky district bazaar. Measures are taken to find out the manufacturer of these cream puffs,” a spokeswoman for the city’s health department told ITAR-Tass.

An initial investigation into the source of the outbreak found the pastries were made by a company based in Kopeisk. Last year, more than 80 people became ill after eating products from the same company.

The name of the company was not reported.

Blame it on the cream puffs? 21 sick in Guam

Guam health types report at least 21 individuals who were treated and released at two hospitals suffered from symptoms related to foodborne illness.

Division of Environmental Health Administrator Tom Nadeau says based on interviews, the individuals attended different functions and consumed a variety of items but the common link was the consumption of cream puffs from Celebrity Bakery.

Nadeau says samples of the pastry will be sent off-island and it is too premature to confirm if the cream puffs are the source of the foodborne illness.

Bakery owner Nelia Pono is anxious for the results as her staff have been making the local favorite for 20 years and the night before Thanksgiving, her staff prepared 1,500 cream puffs and sold more than a thousand. Pono added that her staff took some home and tested them and did not get sick.

While the food taster approach may not hold much scientific merit, Pono did say she would pay medical expenses if her bakery was indeed the cause.