Tag Archives: Wisconsin

Four sickened by E. coli after eating meat from Zillman Meat Market in Wisconsin

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The Wausau Daily Herald reports that four people have become ill, including one person who was hospitalized, from E. coli after eating meat processed at Zillman Meat Market in Wausau, Wisconsin.

The Marathon County Health Department says that ready-to-eat, custom smoked meat products made from wild game processed between Sept. 30 and Nov. 13 are the only products being investigated.

Ruth Klee Marx, an epidemiologist with the health department said the market will complete a “thorough cleaning” of their facility “in the next several days.”

Pat Zillman, owner of the market, said he and his staff are fully cooperating with the health department and provided any information requested by health department officials.

No ready-to-eat products are being sold but fresh meat is still available for sale.

In a worrying poo-pooh of bacterial cross-contamination, Zillman said, “There is always an inherent risk of bacterial contaminations when you purchase fresh meat. That’s why people need to cook it properly.”

Officials recommend using a food thermometer to ensure temperatures reach 155 degrees, particularly for ground fresh meat.

That would be 160F for ground beef, 165F for chicken.

The health department is advising people to not eat smoked, ready-to-eat meat products purchased from Zillman. Hunters who brought their own meat to Zillman’s to be processed into smoked, ready-to-eat also should not eat the products.

Wedding guests ill in Wisconsin

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The Franklin Health Department is investigating an illness that appears connected to a wedding last weekend. The bride’s parents told Today’s TMJ4 they feel terrible that the wedding guests became so ill, including the bride and groom.

At least 20 people came down with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps, according to the health department. The bride’s parents said they believe the number of victims may actually be much higher than 20.

The health department said it was unclear whether the illness came from food consumed at the wedding reception or some other location guests visited over the course of the weekend. The Franklin Health Officer said the department will contact guests who may have come in contact with the illness.

One health official, who is not connected to this investigation, questioned whether the illness could be norovirus which has recently spiked in northern Illinois.

Oshkosh to Green Bay and apple cider

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While watching Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings lose to the Green Bay Packers last night (for about 5 minutes), and while wondering if Brett was a naughty boy with those text messages (for about 12 seconds), the Sunday Night Football broadcast crew paid homage to fall in Wisconsin with apple cider.

A series of vignettes showed a dude with a small apple press, lovingly grinding up the apples and them pressing the pulp into cider. Yummy. But I prefer mine mulled, pasteurized or fermented.
 

Suspected salmonella poisoning closes Wisconsin restaurant

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Officials with the Kenosha County Health Department have shut down a local restaurant after at least 10 people have been confirmed with salmonella poisoning.

The Kenosha News reports an official with the Kenosha County Health Department confirmed that it closed Baker Street Restaurant & Pub, 6208 Green Bay Road, but that official would not comment about why the restaurant was closed down.

However, Tom Stemple, an employee of Tricoli Restaurants, which owns Baker Street, said 10 to 18 people who ate at the restaurant were sick with salmonella and owner Lou Tricoli was contacting all of his Baker Street employees to get them tested, adding,

“He’s gathering everyone together, trying to interview them to help find out the source of this. He’s trying to sort things out so that he can help protect everyone —his employees and the public.”

Wisconsin hotel worker fired after norovirus outbreak

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Don’t fire the messenger. Improve and enforce the message.

A Country Springs Hotel line cook claims he was wrongly terminated for “sanitation reasons” after dozens of people were sickened at a banquet at the Waukesha, Wis., hotel last week, adding,

"I’m the fall guy. I’m the scapegoat. There’s been no proof that I was responsible for bringing a virus to work."

The cook told WTMJ he was getting over the flu and wasn’t feeling 100 per cent the day he helped prepare the food for the banquet but he doesn’t think he should have lost his job.

"The managers, they knew I was ill, they knew there were other people that were ill. They didn’t send me home Sunday and Monday. They sent me home Tuesday. Sunday and Monday they needed me really bad. Tuesday it was not a busy day.”

The Wisconsin Food Code says kitchen employees must report if they have flu like symptoms. The Country Springs manager told Today’s TMJ4 that’s why they "fired one employee for failure to comply with the reporting requirement policies."

Norovirus caused the barf at Wisconsin luncheon; linked to sick workers working

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Haaarrvard, are you listening? Letting sick workers serve food is a recipe for barf.

Waukesha County health officials confirmed Monday that norovirus is behind the outbreak of gastrointestinal illness reported by many of the 500 people attending a fund-raising luncheon last week at the Country Springs Hotel.

Julianne Klimetz, a county spokeswoman, said initial lab results confirmed the cause. In addition, investigators have confirmed that two people handling the food were ill at the time.

Klimetz said the Country Springs kitchen has been cleaned and kitchen staff have been informed about proper hand washing.

Everyone’s a comedian. Did anyone tell the staff not to work if they are barfing? Or would staff get fired for not showing up, even though the no-work-when-barfing thing is written in a manual somewhere.

50 Wisconsin banquet guests suffer from food illness

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The Waukesha County Health Department is investigating an illness outbreak at the Country Springs Hotel.

About 500 people attended a luncheon at the Country Springs Hotel, and the managers were notified that about 50 of the guests were suffering from flu like symptoms.

The Health Department tells FOX6 the Banquet Room and the attached kitchen were completely sanitized.

When people start barfing, raw milk loses its fun

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Laura Landro of The Wall Street Journal writes this morning that amid new reports of illnesses linked to raw milk, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are stepping up efforts to warn consumers of the dangers, and urging states to strengthen their regulations to minimize the hazards of raw milk. …

On Friday, the FDA reported 12 new cases of illness in the Midwest linked to raw milk from a dairy contaminated with a dangerous bacterium, campylobacter

Kalee Prue, a 29-year old Connecticut mother of one, says she believed in the benefits of raw milk but became ill soon after drinking some purchased at a Whole Foods in Connecticut linked to the E. coli outbreak.

Ms. Prue says even if there are healthy properties in raw milk, "there are other ways to get the benefits that raw milk has to offer, and it just isn’t worth the risk."

Whole Foods declined comment on Ms. Prue’s case.

Whole Foods, like any other demagogue, sucks when it is questioned, but they sure like the attention when they hold the microphone.

Sally Fallon Morrell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which promotes the consumption of "nutrient-dense whole foods," including raw milk, says the risks described from the CDC and FDA are "way overblown" and that the there is ample evidence that raw milk has many health properties. .

At the Grassfields farm in Coopersville, Mich., where 150 families belong to a cow-sharing program called Green Pastures, … it treats infections when they occur with "herbs, homeopathy, tinctures, prayer and vitamins."

More faith-based food safety.

Woman found guilty of planting rat in meal at Wisconsin restaurant

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Running a restaurant is hard enough without dealing with rats and wackos.

The Post-Crescent reports that a woman who attempted to extort money from an upscale restaurant by putting a rat in her lunch entered no-contest pleas Tuesday to two criminal charges.

Judge Dee Dyer found Debbie R. Miller, 43, guilty after she entered the no-contest pleas to a felony extortion charge and a misdemeanor for obstructing police. She will be sentenced March 8 in Outagamie County Court.

Miller planted a rat in her lunch at The Seasons on April 17, 2008, and then demanded $500,000 from the owners. She threatened to alert the media if the money wasn’t paid.

Bob Doller, who owns The Seasons in Grand Chute with his wife, Jessica, said,

“This has been a long, drawn out battle and it has affected my business. We would hope that if anyone had any doubts that it was a true claim, they would know now that it was extortion. In April, it will be two years since this happened. If you compare 2007 to 2008 (the year of the incident), the loss was tens of thousands of dollars.”

The Dollers kept the rat after the extortion attempt. Insurance investigators sent it for testing and determined that it not only wasn’t a wild rat, but rather a domestic, white rat that had been cooked in a microwave. The restaurant doesn’t use microwaves.
 

25 knocked out with norovirus, Wisconsin sub shop closed

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The Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that Cousins Subs, in Neenah, WI, temporarily closed about 1 p.m. Friday after city health officials pinpointed it as the source of a suspected norovirus outbreak.

Director Judy Crouch-Smolarek said the Neenah Health Department received about 25 reports of acute gastroenteritis, adding,

“We were informed about mid-day (Thursday) of a number of people suffering from GI illnesses. Due to the number of people who have fallen ill, including some employees, the restaurant has voluntarily closed. The restaurant will be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and will re-open when they meet the necessarily requirements of the Neenah Health Department.”

Larry Weissman, vice president of marketing in Cousins’ corporate offices in Menomonee Falls, said,

“We have sent representatives from our corporate offices to Neenah to assist, and we are working with the store and the local authorities to determine what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again.”