Tag Archives: PEI

PEI church dinner suspect as 160 sickened

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At least 160 people became ill following a weekend church supper in Malpeque, Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada).

The Charlottetown Guardian reports the province’s Health Department must wait "several days” before receiving lab results to help pinpoint the exact cause.

Deputy chief public health officer Dr. Lamont Sweet says all indications are the cause of the wide spread illness was foodborne. However, the ongoing investigation has yet to determine if a virus or bacteria is responsible.

Sweet says the illnesses, mainly diarrhea but also some cases of abdominal pain and nausea, appear linked to the 500 meals that were sold Saturday at Princetown United Church, most as takeout dinners. Many were ill for only a few hours but others reported being sick for 24 hours or longer, he said.

If this outbreak of illness proves to be food-borne, this will mark only the third time in the past 22 years that community meals have resulted in food-borne illness on P.E.I.

Any remaining food purchased from the church on the weekend should be tossed out, he added.

The meal was roast beef, vegetables, rolls and desserts. A portion of the meal was prepared on site and some of the items, including desserts, were brought into the venue.

PEI norovirus restaurant employs the Fat Duck Defense; blames suppliers

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Following up on that norovirus outbreak linked to a restaurant in Prince Edward Island, Canada, the one where the restaurant said it has never had a food safety problem and that its ingredients were fresh and local – and where at least 48 people are barfing – a barfblog.com reader wrote:

"It’s a shame don’t you think? I was one of the unfortunate diners to get sick from eating there, and even after having 48 people reporting to the health department about being sick, the restaurant hasn’t been shut down for a thorough cleaning, and nothing has been done, no apology or anything, and even worse, when my sister-in-law called the restaurant to talk with them, they denied it and said it couldn’t have happened since they never got sick from eating the food (two people from the restaurant have since admitted to being sick) and then said it must have come from her suppliers."

(This is known as the Fat Duck Defense in honor of Heston Blumenthal and his staff sickening over 500 customers with norovirus in the U.K. in early 2009.)

"Unfortunately we will probably never find out what it was that caused all of us to become sick."

Food porn, not food safety, dominates public statement from PEI noro restaurant

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In further evidence of how seemingly good people confuse food safety with food pornography, Francine Thorpe, the owner of a Prince Edward Island restaurant at the center of a norovirus outbreak that has now sickened up to 48 people decided to make a public statement:

“In our history we are proud to say that we have never been cited for any food-related infractions by provincial health officials. … We take pride in our food service, our people and more importantly we value our loyal, cherished customers. We maintain a modern, sanitary kitchen, employing some of the best experienced food preparation people in the business. We try to buy local products and serve only the very best of fresh ingredients. We very much regret what has transpired and are determined to find out exactly what happened.”

Local and fresh do not mean safe. Never been cited for food infractions doesn’t mean you haven’t made people barf, or that your employees haven’t shown up for work while sick. Tell the good citizens of PEI about your employee training and hygiene procedures rather than how local and fresh your ingredients are. It has to do with a lot of people barfing.

Suspected norovirus outbreak linked to PEI restaurant; 20 sick

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When I think fine dining in Manhattan (Kansas), I think seafood, specifically mussels.

It’s like that WKRP episode where Mr. Carlson comes up with a fund-raiser theme – Surf City, USA, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I’ve eaten my share of mussels lately, and they all seem to come from Prince Edward Island – that’s in Canada, and a long way to ship a cheap bivalve (those are some New Zealand mussels, right).

Charlottetown, the provincial capital of the Rhode Island of the north, is reporting a probable outbreak of foodborne illness amongst 20 diners who ate at the Churchill Arms between 5 and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7.

There is no food left for sampling from the suspect meals and the cause of the illness among those who were ill has not yet been confirmed. However, the symptoms reported are very suggestive of the Norwalk virus which has been identified in PEI recently in the community. The illness appears to have been limited to those who ate over the two and one half hour period that one night.