Nothing says ‘I love you’ better than rampant barfing at a wedding.
About 150 of the 185 people attending a July 3, 2010 wedding at the Stone 
Tree Golf and Fitness Club south of Owen Sound, Ont. barfed the magic night away.
Health officials say lab tests confirmed norovirus as responsible for the outbreak. Staff have been co-operative, the facility has been cleaned and all staff have been re-trained about health and safety practices.
I didn’t even come up with that headline. Those science journal writers are developing a sense of humor.
Eriksen et al. write in Eurosurveillance today:
Food poisoning outbreaks caused by Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin occur occasionally in Europe but have become less common in recent years. This paper presents the microbiological and epidemiological results of a large C. perfringens outbreak occurring simultaneously at two weddings that used the same caterer.
The outbreak involved several London locations and required coordination across multiple agencies. A case-control study (n=134) was carried out to analyze possible associations between the food consumed and becoming ill. Food, environmental and stool samples were tested for common causative agents, including enterotoxigenic C. perfringens. The clinical presentation and the epidemiological findings were compatible with C. perfringens food poisoning and C. perfringens enterotoxin was detected in stool samples from two cases.
The case-control study found statistically significant associations between becoming ill and eating either a specific chicken or lamb dish prepared by the same food handler of the implicated catering company. A rapid outbreak investigation with preliminary real-time results and the successful collaboration between the agencies and the caterer led to timely identification and rectification of the failures in the food handling practices.
In the discussion, the authors write,
A blast chiller is normally used for cooling large quantities of food quickly by this particular caterer; however it was not being used appropriately at the time of the 
incident. Temperature control of foods during preparation, cooling, transportation and reheating was poor. Furthermore, the vans used for food transport had no refrigeration and these events took place in July. The evidence of insufficient hygiene, cooling and reheating at the catering company during transport and at both venues (according to environmental health department inspections) are in keeping with a toxin-related gastroenteritis outbreak, including C. perfringens.
Amy’s brother got married in Vietnam. I don’t think there were any food issues, but diarrhea at a wedding doesn’t sound good, what with the white dresses and all.
Unfortunately for guests at a wedding feast in Bac Ly commune in Ly Nhan District, 47 of them developed acute diarrhea. Health workers are trying to monitor an additional 63 guests, while determining if the source was food.
The Jim and Pam wedding episode of The Office began last night with either a homage to the campfire story barf scene in Stand By Me, or Ben’s last car trip to Canada.
Either way, quite funny, and certainly worthy of something called, barfblog.com.
A brewery has been fined £5,100 after guests at a wedding reception were struck down with a serious outbreak of food poising.
Young & Co’s Brewery plc, who operate the Bull’s Head in Chislehurst, admitted to three food hygiene offences that caused 29 guests at a wedding to be ill.
The officers found that the wedding reception menu contained homemade chicken liver pate and a soft-centred chocolate pudding made from un-pasteurised eggs.
The paté had been cooked the previous day using a new cooker and was probably undercooked as cooking times and temperatures had not been reassessed for the new cooker.
A faulty fridge was also found to be in use in the kitchen.
Norovirus sickened more than 70 people who attended a wedding reception in Washington County, PA, this month.(3).jpg)
Investigators from the state Department of Agriculture found that the Stockdale Volunteer Fire Company, which hosted the reception at its fire hall, allowed an ill bartender to handle drinks and ice and used an unsanitary ice machine during the event.
Wedding guest Kim McCrory of Cranberry called the state Department of Health after she learned that she wasn’t the only guest experiencing diarrhea and vomiting in the days after the event.
"I have never been so sick; it was awful," McCrory said. "We weren’t sure if it was food poisoning or something else. But when I heard that so many people who were at the wedding got sick, I knew I should report it."
The bartender admitted having flu-like symptoms and should have been restricted from handling foods, ice and beverages.