An unnamed Northland food outlet is being investigated over nine confirmed cases of a rare type of Salmonella.

In the past few weeks, Northland District Health Board has found a total of eleven cases of the food poisoning, which has been identified as Salmonella Infantis.

The Board’s medical officer Clair Mills says it was odd to have a cluster all at once and in a region where this type of bug is uncommon.

She says nine of the eleven people had eaten at the same outlet in Whangarei.

“So then of course we look further at the premise and we take samples from food and we take stool samples from staff.”

Health officials are investigating the eatery and its food supply chain to find a possible source of the bacterial infection but have not been able to find whether it came from a product or was spread by an infected person.