Tag Archives: restaurant

Pass the stool collection kits: 40 complain about barfing linked to North Carolina seafood joint

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Another in the weekly we’ve-been-doing-it-this-way-all-our-lives-and-never-got-sick declarations from a restaurant tentatively fingered in an outbreak of illness.

The Hickory Daily Record reports 40 people have complained to officials at Catawba County Public Health that they got sick after eating a meal at Conover’s Harbor Inn Seafood restaurant.

One thing the victims have in common is that they ate at Harbor Inn on Jan. 13.
Health officials are working to determine what the illness is and what caused it, said Catawba County Public Health Outreach Manager Amy McCauley

The first complaints came in on Jan. 17. As of Monday, 40 cases had been reported. None have required hospitalization, said Catawba County Health Director Doug Urland.

“Our Environmental Health workers have been to the restaurant almost every day to investigate and educate the staff about proper food handling techniques and to make sure they are stringent about safe food handling techniques,” McCauley said.

George Ziogas owns the Conover Harbor Inn and said he has no idea why some of his customers got sick following their Friday the 13th meal.

“The Health Department came in and they could not find anything. All of the food temperatures were OK. All of the salad bar temperatures were OK,” he said. “We’ve been open for 23 years and we’ve never had a problem.”

Recent inspection results have given Harbor Inn consistently high marks.
The most recent inspection came on Dec. 29 and Harbor Inn got an A with a score of 99.5. Three months earlier the restaurant scored 99.5. In June, Harbor Inn earned a 100.5.

“I want people to know we’re going to be here a long time – we’re not going anywhere – we’ve been here 23 years and this was a one-time incident,” Ziogas said.

“I eat here all the time and I like the food – if I didn’t, I wouldn’t come back,” said Cora Greene, of Mountain View, on Tuesday, after sharing a meal of whitefish with her son. “This can happen anyplace, but I’ve never gotten sick. I’ll be back.”

Health officials are working to identify the mysterious illness and its cause, but won’t speculate on what it may be.

On Friday, Catawba County Public Health began distributing stool sample kits to the victims of the illness at the request of the North Carolina Division of Public Health. The people complaining of illnesses related to Harbor Inn meals have been instructed to use the kit and return it to Catawba County Public Health, which will then send the kits to the state lab for testing.

It takes about a week to process the tests, and it won’t be clear what’s been making people sick until the results are in.

None of the distributed kits had been returned to Catawba County Public Health as of Tuesday, McCauley said.

The symptoms associated with the Harbor Inn outbreak are intense nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The onset came within 12 to 24 hours following the Jan. 13 meal and lasted from 24 to 36 hours for most of the victims, according to reports from Catawba County Public Health.

18 sick, 1 dead in Australian salmonella outbreak

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A restaurant in Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, was closed for a week on Dec. 30, 2011, after a cluster of salmonella infections including one death, were linked to the eatery.

A Health Department spokesman confirmed 13 cases of salmonella linked to the eatery, plus another five suspected cases.

Investigations are continuing into whether the death of an elderly man on December 30 is connected to the case.

Health officials said the premises required “a thorough clean-up” and they ordered an extensive overhaul of the business’s food-handling procedures.

Staff were also ordered to undertake more training in food handling.

In another example of repetition-doesn’t-make-it-right, he owner of the business said yesterday he was shocked by the incident.

“We’ve been using the same procedures for 21 years and never had such a thing. We don’t know what caused it but we have done everything the Health Department has asked us to do – everything – but we don’t know if it’s our fault or not.”

The owner said he had changed his supplier of eggs.

While the restaurant has reopened for business, it is still being monitored by Ballarat City Council.

Acting chief executive officer Jeff Pulford declined to say whether charges were pending.

“The matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation in conjunction with the Department of Health and as such it is inappropriate to make any comment,” he said.

If people were getting sick in Dec., the place was shut on Dec. 30, and almost two weeks later the restaurant is reopened with no more details than we’ve changed our egg supplier, it is more than appropriate to make a comment. How are consumers to know whether they should eat at the place or not?

Bear meat café reopens; ‘I am preparing everything brand new, my chicken balls my egg rolls’

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The Mandarin Palace Restaurant in in Fredericton, New Brunswick (that’s in Canada), which was closed after rotting bear meat was discovered in a freezer, has reopened after a reinspection by Department of Health on Thursday.

There’s a note on the inspector’s report that says a food course must be completed as discussed with the business owners Johnny and Tina Tu.

"I will be reopened today," said Tu. "I am preparing everything brand new, my chicken balls and my egg rolls."

Tu said she sat down with government investigators to discuss how and why rancid parts of a black bear were found in her restaurant’s cooler. She told The Daily Gleaner she agreed to keep the bear for one of her customers, but the customer later told her to keep the bear.

Tu didn’t know what to do with it and was getting conflicting advice on how to dispose of it.

"I hope everybody understands that I never touched the bear. I didn’t eat it and I wouldn’t serve it to people," Tu said.

Tu said customers know that chicken is chicken and beef is beef.

"They can taste. They know. There’s the difference. I don’t want people to be scared. I didn’t touch anything with the bear," she said.

The Health Department said the condition of the bear meat created a high risk for cross-contamination. Officials told Tu and her husband Johnny — the restaurant’s co-owners — the cooler where the bear was stored had to be stripped bare of its contents and sanitized prior to reinspection. The department also said it would provide information on food-handling techniques and food safety.

Food must be purchased from an approved source. Wild animals are not approved’ Rotten bear meat closes Canadian restaurant

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The Mandarin Palace Restaurant in Fredericton, New Brunswick (that’s in Canada) was closed after decomposing bear meat was found in a cooler during a routine inspection this week.

The meat, found in the on Tuesday, was turned over to the Department of Natural Resources. An investigation is ongoing.

The restaurant was closed because of concerns the bear meat could have contaminated other contents in the cooler, but the risk to public health is very low, the Department of Health said in a statement.

An inspection record posted on the government’s website said, "Food must be purchased from an approved source. Wild animals are not approved."

The restaurant will remain closed until the cooler has been properly cleaned.

Samples of the bear meat have been sent out to test for trichinella, a parasite that can be transmitted to humans through consumption of raw or undercooked infected bear meat.

Fancy food ain’t safe food: Chicago’s Alinea 3 Michelin stars, fails city inspection

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Fox News reports Chicago’s Alinea was given the Michelin Guide’s coveted three-star rating last month, the only Chicago restaurant to earn that top honor, but later in the month it failed an inspection by the City of Chicago’s food protection division.

Violations included foods at improper temperatures, employees not able to wash their hands properly, black mold growth inside an ice machine, and the front door was cited as not being insect or rodent-proof.

More food safety, less food porn.

That failing inspection report was listed as taking place on Nov. 30th. One week later, on Dec. 8, the restaurant was re-inspected and received a passing grade.

The second report did still mention a few issues, such as ventilation equipment that was needed, but it was a passing grade.

59 confirmed sick: Don Julio’s was the salmonella source in Mississippi

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After dancing around the possible source of a salmonella outbreak in Corinth, Mississippi, with lots of reassurances that restaurants were safe, state health types announced what most suspected since Dec. 7, 2011:

“As of today, a total of 59 patrons and employees of Don Julio Mexican Restaurant, 1901 Virginia Lane in Corinth, have had positive cultures confirming the presence of salmonella.”

But this time the health types stressed that “salmonella is no longer an ongoing risk to the public in Corinth, Miss.”

"Our investigation has shown that the incident does not appear to be a food producer or supplier issue," said Northeast Mississippi District Health Officer Dr. Jessie R. Taylor. "It appears to be an isolated problem with this particular restaurant, and the restaurant is working closely with us to correct the problem."

And that’s all … for now.

Judge to Canberra restaurant: anyone going into restaurant business should know hygiene standards; Grand Court fined $8000

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With no further news on the raw-egg-in-mayonnaise salmonella outbreak at a Canberra cafe and bakery that has sickened 13, attention in the capital today turned to the owner of a Chinese restaurant who was convicted and fined $8000 after breaching the territory’s food safety laws.

Health authorities shut down the Grand Court restaurant in October, 2010 for 11 days after finding grimy work surfaces and ”biological matter” all over the cool-room floor.

But the ACT Magistrates Court heard owner Michelle Foo, 28, had worked hard to clean up the restaurant and had been allowed to reopen after it passed a health inspection.

Foo had pleaded guilty to four charges of failing to comply with food hygiene requirements and unsafe food handling.

Her defence lawyer told the court that the evidence against his client was indisputable but said Foo was very remorseful for the offences and had since turned things around at the eatery.

The court heard Foo had previously worked for Woolworths and had no experience of running a restaurant when she bought the Grand Court in August 2010.

The restaurant was old and inadequate and staff did not follow appropriate hygiene practices.

A health officer inspected the premises after a customer complained about a cockroach in a takeaway bag.

According to documents tendered in court, the inspection uncovered dirty work surfaces, greasy walls, dirty equipment and a lack of proper food-storage containers.

Authorities shut the restaurant down amid fears it was ”critically unhygienic”.

The Grand Court had since been cleaned up and had passed every health inspection for the past year.

Magistrate Maria Doogan said it was difficult to accept Foo’s excuse that she was an inexperienced restaurateur, saying anyone who went into the restaurant business should know about hygiene standards.

It’s OK; ‘koala meat’ was actually bamboo rat, restaurant claims

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A restaurant in southern China that found itself at the center of outrage for selling "koala meat" claims it was in fact selling a type of rat that bears a resemblance to the drowsy marsupial.

An Australian tourist visiting a restaurant in Guangzhou’s Panyu district told a radio station 3AW that diners were able to select a live koala from a cage and could choose whether they wanted it "braised" or "stewed."

Distressed by the scene, the traveller snapped a photo of what appeared to be the iconic animal, bent forward and facing downward in a cage, with only a carrot given as food.

But the general manager of the restaurant denied that the animal was a koala, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Australian tourist was actually the victim of a false alarm, as the restaurant never sells koala," the manager said.

Another manager at the restaurant clarified that the animal was a bamboo rat.

The Chinese bamboo rat is found in southern parts of the country and is commonly sold in food markets.

Hepatitis vaccinations urged for patrons of Pennsylvania restaurant

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An employee of the Pasta Alla Rosa Restaurant in Allentown has been diagnosed with Hepatitis A, the city Health Bureau said Friday, as it urged anyone who has eaten at the restaurant in the past two weeks to get vaccinations if they don’t already have them.

The Pasta Alla Rosa worker had limited food handling duties, but the Health Bureau said it wants to be careful with patrons who ate at the 602 Hamilton St. restaurant between Sept. 23 and Friday, the worker’s infectious period.

Pasta Alla Rosa customers should get a vaccination if they’re 1 to 40 years old, or immune globulin if they’re older, the Health Bureau said. No action is needed by those already vaccinated against Hepatitis A.

The Health Bureau will make the Heptatis A vaccination available 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday with a walk-in clinic at 245 N. Sixth St., Allentown. The immune globulin will be offered to those over 40 as soon as the bureau obtains a supply through the state Department of Health.

Fancy food isn’t safe food: Lebanon edition

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The Daily Star reports that when Charbel quit his job recently as a quality control inspector at a catering company that owns a chain of restaurants in Beirut, he felt nothing but relief.

“It was a miserable job,” says Charbel, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “No one listens to you … it’s not the kitchen staff, it’s the management. They don’t want to spend any money.”

Although he won’t reveal the name of the restaurant he was responsible for monitoring, Charbel describes it as a member of a five-star chain with an attitude toward food safety that is laissez-faire, to say the least.

“The refrigerators don’t work, foods get stacked on top of each other,” he says. “You have vegetables that come in, they stay in the open air for a couple of days, then the mould comes in and the worms, and when you tell them, they just pick [out] the rotten ones and throw them away but leave the rest.”

Charbel says that government inspectors would visit the kitchen, but would rarely notice the flagrant health violations that were taking place.

Asked why customers didn’t complain about cases of food poisoning, Charbel laughs. “No one suspects that a five-star restaurant would give them food poisoning,” he says.
“This is one company, but from my understanding, it’s not an isolated case. This seems to be common in Lebanon. How many people get food poisoning and don’t have enough [money] to go to the hospital?”

Zeina Kassaify, a professor at the American University of Beirut’s department of nutrition and food sciences, and president of the Lebanese Association for Food Safety, says that often, Lebanese consumers who get food poisoning from restaurants don’t report the incident.

Kassaify says that currently, there is no unified governmental system to assess and manage food safety violations. “The responsibilities are so fragmented,” she says.
“You have four or five different ministries that have responsibilities toward food safety … but when you ask whose responsibility it is to administer penalties, you won’t get a satisfactory answer. It’s so chaotic.”