Tag Archives: lunch lady

Will you really survive? Lunch Lady again on food inspection hot seat

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The last public musing about Ottawa’s Lunch Lady was April 1, 2012, when it was announced the provider of school meals would reopen after making over 50 kids sick with salmonella.

It’s Canada; lowered expectations are normal.

Back on April Fool’s day, Jonathan Morris, the owner of two Lunch Lady franchises, said the caterer has undergone new testing procedures at their kitchens and redistributed some of the staff duties. He said the kitchens have been thoroughly sterilized and much of the food has been thrown out.

"This problem was rooted in an individual who made a mistake," said Morris, adding that the staff member has since been let go. He said the fired employee made a "mistake" in the preparation that led to the contamination of the food.

There was never a full accounting of what the alleged mistake was. Were the kitchens using meat thermometers to ensure safe temperatures had been reached? What kind of meat storage and prep procedures were followed to minimize cross-contamination? What handwashing procedures were in place and was there any verification such procedures are followed? Basic questions that the Lunch Lady and franchisee Morris seem unwilling to answer.

"My business will survive, but it’s not about me, it’s about those kids."

Maybe. But I’d want a lot more information before my kids ate there.

Local food folks at least appear to be awake; and yesterday, it was revealed Ottawa Public Health cited the same outfit for failing to store food at 4 C or below.

Jonathan-I-will-survive Morris said, “It wasn’t a failed inspection. It concerned our walk-in fridge which was a little warm since we’re in and out of it all day.”

Ottawa public health types said the Lunch Lady is now in compliance.”

In all, the three Lunch Lady franchises in the city serve about 5,000 children at 55 locations including more than 15 schools throughout Ottawa.

Ottawa Lunch Lady to reopen after sickening 54 with Salmonella, mainly kids

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The Lunch Lady will resume serving meals to Ottawa schools beginning Monday.

The Ottawa Citizen reports the caterer has been closed for more than two weeks after it was discovered that some meals had been contaminated with salmonella. At least 49 children and five adults had lab-confirmed cases of the stomach bug related to the outbreak, according to the City of Ottawa public health department.

Jonathan Morris, the owner of two Lunch Lady franchises, said since voluntarily shutting down, they’ve undergone new testing procedures at their kitchens and redistributed some of the staff duties. He said the kitchens have been thoroughly sterilized and much of the food has been thrown out.

"This problem was rooted in an individual who made a mistake," said Morris, adding that the staff member has since been let go. He said the fired employee made a "mistake" in the preparation that led to the contamination of the food.

"The beef we received already had salmonella in it, but if the beef had been properly handled it wouldn’t have been issued," he said.

Morris said he feels "bad" that so many children and adults became ill from the food that was sent out to the schools.

But not bad enough to offer a full accounting of what the mistake was.

Morris is offering a variation of the trust us PR approach that usually fails. If one of my kids got sick, or if I was faced with choosing a school meal, I would want to know exactly what went wrong and exactly what has been changed so it wouldn’t happen again. Were the kitchens using meat thermometers to ensure safe temperatures had been reached? What kind of meat storage and prep procedures were followed to minimize cross-contamination? What handwashing procedures are in place and is there any verification such procedures are followed? Basic questions that the Lunch Lady and franchisee Morris seem unwilling to answer.

"My business will survive, but it’s not about me, it’s about those kids," added Morris, who has owned the business for five years. He has a staff of about 25 employees.

Maybe it’s a Canadian thing. Like the 2008 Maple Leaf listeria outbreak, the boss is saying the correct caring things, but that’s of little comfort to those who got sick. Communication needs to be supported with data. People aren’t dumb: explain what happened and what corrective actions are being taken so your commitment to food safety can be accurately assessed, or maybe your business won’t survive.

Who’s to blame: Ottawa salmonella-in-Lunch-Lady-lasagna edition

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When a sports team fails, some players are shipped to the minors, maybe some assistant coaches, then the coach and eventually the person who made all those hires in the first place – the general manager.

I’m thinking of you, Toronto Maple Leafs (see the extremely vulgar, funny and accurate Leafs Beefs at www.leafsbeefs.com).

The immune-at-the-top philosophy also extends to food service, as the owner of the Ottawa franchise of The Lunch Lady, which provides meals to schools in dozens of Canadian communities, proclaimed today that an employee had been fired after not following proper food handling procedures.

With 50 people sick from salmonella, it’s too little, too late. Any food service operation should know they are only as good as their worst employee.

Jonathan Morris, who runs an Ottawa franchise, confirmed the news in a letter to parents Tuesday.

"The Lunch Lady Group guidelines on handling raw meat and poultry were not properly followed by one individual," the statement read. "This person had the responsibility for ensuring that safe food handling guidelines were followed to the letter. This person is no longer working in my kitchens."

Morris said the salmonella outbreak can be tracked to ground beef used in preparing the catered meals.

The boss sets the tone. And not just Morris. The Lunch Lady herself has said her franchises have strict food procurement, storage and handling guidelines, but has yet to provide any evidence, at least not publicly.

And if ground beef was the source of the salmonella, where did the beef originate? Where are those federal inspectors and veterinarians who are so necessary to ensure food safety?

Two types of Salmonella found in at Ottawa Lunch Lady franchise; unclear whether either is the outbreak strain

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According to the Ottawa Citizen, public health officials have found Salmonella typhimurium in frozen ground beef and Salmonella Heidelberg in raw chicken samples taken from a Lunch Lady franchise that has been linked to an outbreak. At least 50 illnesses in about a dozen elementary schools serviced by the business have been identified.

Lab tests indicate that an outbreak of salmonella that has sickened 46 children likely came from food served by a lunch caterer that primarily serves schools, according to the city’s health department.

Samples of frozen ground beef and raw chicken taken from a kitchen belonging to a Lunch Lady franchise on Boyd Avenue tested positive for the stomach bug detected in the children and four adults who’ve been sick enough to seek medical attention in the last two weeks, the department said in a Friday evening statement.

“The results further point to a link between the outbreak and the ground beef prepared at the caterer, but additional testing is still underway,” the statement said.

The beef was tainted with salmonella typhimurium and the chicken with salmonella heidelberg, it said, two of the many, many forms of the bacteria. The department’s investigation has pointed particularly to Lunch Lady meat lasagna and beef tacos as foods eaten by people who later got sick.

The challenge now is to determine whether the meat was contaminated when it arrived at the kitchen or became tainted while Lunch Lady workers handled it. The health department “is in communication with the Provincial and Federal Health and Food Safety authorities to assist in the ongoing investigation and response,” the statement said.

According to public records, the Boyd Avenue kitchen has been inspected four times since news of the outbreak became public and received a clean report each time, but it could have been just one worker with dirty hands who spread the infection. The kitchen is staying closed, the health department said.

Four post-outbreak inspections may not be all that representative of what was going on before the cluster of illnesses was identified. Undercooking or cross-contamination between the raw food sources and ready-to-eat foods are potential pathways for the Salmonella. What’s unclear from the public health statement is whether either of the strains found are the same as what has been seen in the cluster of illnesses.
 

Person-to-person illness now in Ottawa salmonella outbreak

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The Ottawa Citizen reports that Ottawa’s public health department has recorded a case of salmonella in a high school not served by the caterer believed to have been the source of the recent outbreak.

The case at Merivale High School may be an instance where an older student caught salmonella from a younger sibling, said Eric Leclair, a spokesman for the health department.

The tally of people who’ve contracted the foodborne illness since the department declared an outbreak remains at 50, though only 44 of them are believed to be connected via contaminated food delivered by a franchise of The Lunch Lady, a service that delivers hot food for children’s lunches.

The health department is still waiting for the results of lab tests on Lunch Lady food – meat used in lasagna and tacos, plus sour cream, cottage cheese and some spices – that would confirm the connection. Those are now expected by Friday, Leclair said.

Ottawa salmonella outbreak confirmed cases climbs to 45

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Ottawa Public Health reports the number of confirmed cases in the Lunch-Lady related salmonella outbreak has risen to 45, up from 37 on Monday. The confirmed cases are primarily children, 15-months to 18-years-old.

The schools and daycare with a confirmed case include:
• Bayview Public School
• École élémentaire publique Des Sentiers
• Tiny Hoppers Daycare (50 Colchester, Kanata)
• Steve MacLean Public School
• Stittsville Public School
• Turnbull School
• École élémentaire catholique Jean-Paul II
• W.O. Mitchell Elementary School
• St. Andrew Catholic School.

Ottawa salmonella outbreak confirmed cases climbs to 37; more schools affected

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Ottawa Public Health reports this afternoon that the number of confirmed cases in the Lunch-Lady related salmonella outbreak has risen to 37, up from 27 on Friday. The confirmed cases are primarily children, 15-months to 18-years-old, along with four adults, although two adults appear unrelated to this outbreak.

The schools and daycare with a confirmed case include:

• Bayview Public School
• École élémentaire publique Des Sentiers
• Tiny Hoppers Daycare (50 Colchester, Kanata)
• Steve MacLean Public School
• Stittsville Public School
• Turnbull School
• École élémentaire catholique Jean-Paul II
• W.O. Mitchell Elementary School

27 sick as more salmonella cases identified; two additional Ottawa schools affected

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Four more children have been diagnosed with salmonella since yesterday, as the city’s public health department continues to investigate an outbreak of food poisoning that appears to have spread through a caterer serving hot lunches at schools and daycares.

The Ottawa Citizen reports there have now been 27 lab-confirmed cases of the food-poisoning bacteria since Public Health declared an outbreak early this week, including 23 children and four adults. (Two of the adults are included in the tally even though their cases are believed to be unrelated.) Friday afternoon, the health department also added two schools to the list of those where children have become sick: Bayvew Public School and Ecole élémentaire Des Sentiers.

Investigators are still analysing food from a kitchen run by a franchise of The Lunch Lady, trying to confirm suspicions that its meat lasagna and beef tacos were contaminated. All six schools and one daycare where children are known to have got sick are served by one franchise of The Lunch Lady, which delivers meals to kids whose parents pay for the service.

The results of the lab analysis are expected to take a few more days, perhaps even until next Wednesday, said Public Health spokesman John Steinbachs. Bacterial cultures take time to grow, and they then have to be compared with samples from afflicted patients to see if they match.

In the meantime, two Lunch Lady kitchens — the one on Boyd Avenue where investigators have been concentrating their efforts, and another in Kanata — are closed, said their owner, Jonathan Morris.

“We don’t know what the source of the contamination is, and until we do, we’re not going to be making or serving food,” he said. Parents whose children get meals from those kitchens will have to make other arrangements for at least next week, Morris said.

“It’s harder as a parent than it is as a business owner,” Morris said. “I’m a parent, most of my staff are parents, and we serve food to a lot of them. These kids getting sick, that’s what’s, well, that’s what making me sick. The business is … that’s not even secondary.”

24 sick; ground beef possible cause of Ottawa salmonella outbreak

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The local owner of a catering franchise linked to 20 cases of salmonella in Ottawa told CBC News he is treating the outbreak "as if it’s his fault" and said he suspects ground beef as a potential cause.

Ottawa Public Health today increased the confirmed case count to 24, including four adults, and the remainder children from a variety of area schools, now including Stittsville Public School.

Jonathan Morris, who has operated a franchise of "The Lunch Lady" for five years, said hebelieves the food in question is ground beef used to make tacos and curly lasagna.

Ottawa Public Health has not implicated any specific food.

Morris is meeting with public health officials Thursday and has also sent a letter to thousands of parents. He said some parents have already cancelled their lunch service, while others are offering support.

Canadian caterer upset over salmonella outbreak

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Ottawa Public Health has now confirmed 20 cases of salmonella, including 16 children between 15 months and 14-years-old, and four adults which they believe might have originated from The Lunch Lady Group caterer.

The owner of the Canadian company told CBC News Wednesday she is devastated by the news and called the outbreak a "mystery".

"It’s horribly painful because we love serving kids everyday," Ruthie Burd said over the phone from her home in Markham, Ont.

"We do everything we can to provide a reliable, safe service for the kids we serve."

"We have very strict guidelines for all sorts of things when it comes to food and kids," she said, "We empathize with parents in this whole situation. We really want to know what it is and what we can put in place to prevent anything."

As a parent, that doesn’t tell me much about the food safety training, standards, buying practices, personal hygiene and overall food safety culture in those kitchens.

The Lunch Lady has a blog but it hasn’t been updated since Aug., 2011. They have a statement about culture and sustainability but nothing about what is done so kids don’t barf from Lunch lady lunches. There is a statement about food safety, how it’s all government inspected and they pay attention to recall notices. Perhaps it would be more reassuring to parents if the “strict food safety and quality control policies set out by The Lunch Lady Group head office” were available for perusal.

Public health said 11 officials have been reassigned to deal with the salmonella outbreak, which also hospitalized three people. All have since been released.

They have their hands full, one doctor said, trying to contact families of children who may have consumed contaminated food.

"We’re talking not only to the families of ill children, but parents of well siblings or children that did not become ill," said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, who added 50 families are being interviewed regarding one daycare alone.