By Lisa Jennings of Nations Restaurant News - (Apr. 16) —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
As Orange County health authorities worked to determine the source of the contamination and complete testing on all employees, officials of San Diego-based parent company Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. shut down the salad bar-buffet operation almost a week after seven initial illnesses, including three hospitalizations, were reported.
Pamela Ritz, a Souplantation spokeswoman working with its risk management department, on April 8 said the health department had restricted the branch’s permit to operate and decided to become “regulatorily involved with the reopening.” Before the closure, the restaurant was restocked with new ingredients, had been “throwing out food every night, and doing other extraordinary things” as precautions, she explained.
However, DNA testing of the restaurant’s foodstuffs and checks at the various external facilities that prepare products for Souplantation’s 34 local outlets had found nothing that could be linked to the initial infections on March 23 or March 24, Ritz said. The 12th infection, of a juvenile who was the 10th victim under age 18, was determined to have occurred March 25.
As of presstime, no suspected source of the bacterial infections had been identified, and a reopening date for the chain’s Foothill Ranch outlet in Lake Forest had not been set.
In November and December, Taco Bell voluntarily closed 90 units in four states after an illness outbreak that was blamed on the potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. Some of those outlets remained shuttered for up to two weeks. More than 70 people fell ill in that outbreak, which eventually was linked to prewashed bagged lettuce.
Restaurants often close after reports of foodborne illness, even for just a day. But experts say the decision to close depends entirely on circumstances and the health officials involved.
“It’s typical to close immediately, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that if you don’t, it’s wrong,” said foodservice consultant Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of WD Partners in Columbus, Ohio. “You have to decide what is the right thing to do given the information you have at the moment.”
In such cases, however, the information necessary for such a decision may not come for days or weeks after illnesses are first reported.
One of the victims of the Southern California Souplantation branch was a busboy who ate meals at the restaurant, though health officials said it was not clear as of presstime whether the man was infected at the restaurant or by an outside source.
No other Souplantation restaurant was connected to any E. coli illnesses. Outside California, the chain’s branches are named Sweet Tomatoes.
Initially, Orange County health officials said a thorough investigation had revealed no cause for closure, though at the time the agency still was awaiting the results of testing. The officials indicated that the detected substrain of the E. coli O157:H7 type had not been found before in Southern California and was not the same as the one linked to the spinach grown near Salinas Valley, Calif., that was blamed for an outbreak last year that killed three people and sickened 4,000 others.
The fact that reports of illnesses linked to the Souplantation branch appeared to be limited to customers who dined there within a three-day period indicated that guests were no longer at risk, health officials said.
Spokeswoman Ritz said the company had been willing to close the restaurant before April 6, and that the outlet’s continued operation before then was based on advice from the health department. She said it was necessary to “give the health department time to do their investigation and their science.”
“In some cases, it’s helpful to remain static while they go through their processes,” she said.
One challenge, Ritz noted, was that Souplantation is known for its 55-foot-long salad bar with more than 300 items. The all-you-can-eat menu also includes self-service islands offering various soups, breads and desserts. The Lake Forest unit served an estimated 1,000 meals per day.
Rob Poetsch, a spokesman for Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell Corp., said the decision to close the affected branches last year was voluntary. Some of those units stayed closed longer than others because of the complexities of reopening. The outbreak—which is estimated to have cost parent Yum! Brands Inc. $20 million in lost operating profit—involved reports of illnesses over about three weeks and in multiple locales, making the source more difficult to identify.
Garden Fresh officials, as of presstime, were careful not to implicate as suspect any particular type of foodstuff or other agent as the possible source of contamination.
Product liability litigator William Marler, of the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark, said Souplantation’s buffet-style operation made it “highly unlikely that they’ll find a particular food source” of the infections. Because of their self-service format, buffets present a multitude of opportunities for cross-contamination, and when people are piling a variety of dishes on their plates, it’s often difficult for them to remember exactly what they ate, he said.
Marler, whose firm specializes in representing victims of foodborne illnesses, said three Souplantation customers had contacted his firm as of early April.
Buffet concepts often are sources of such outbreaks, Marler added. For example, at least 62 E. coli illnesses in 2000, including one fatality, that were traced to two franchised Sizzler restaurants in Wisconsin were blamed on cross-contamination of salad bar items that came into kitchen contact with preparation surfaces on which E. coli-tainted meat had been cut.
However, M. Steven Liff, managing director of Sun Capital Partners Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., disagrees that buffet concepts are more at risk. The firm owns a majority share of Garden Fresh and a minority interest in San Antonio-based Souper Salad, a similar salad-bar-focused chain of 87 units. Both Souplantation and Souper Salad were founded in 1978.
“Garden Fresh has been around for a long time, as has Souper Salad, and they’ve never had an incident before,” Liff said.
Last year, after the lethal E. coli outbreak was linked to bagged spinach, Garden Fresh and Souper Salad “weren’t impacted at all,” Liff said. “We were so careful with our food inspections, we never had a blip” in sales.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
UPDATE: Taco Bell declares its restaurants safe after tests find no more E.coli
Brought to you by Nations Restaurant News - IRVINE, , Calif. (Dec. 8) Extensive testing of every menu ingredient still being used in Taco Bell restaurants failed to find any contaminated with E.coli 0157:H7, indicating that green onions may have indeed been the culprit, Taco Bell Corp. indicated Sunday. It asserted in a statement that its restaurants pose no health hazard now that green onions have been removed from the kitchens of all 5,882 Taco Bells in North America.
Meanwhile, a second lawsuit has been filed against the chain and parent Yum! Brands, alleging both were negligent in selling food contaminated with a dangerous form of the E. coli bacteria.
Seattle law firm Marler Clark filed a suit in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Dec. 8 on behalf of a man who is recovering from E. coli symptoms suffered after eating at a Taco there. This suit also names Boskovich Farms of Oxnard, Calif., which grew green onions supplied to Taco Bell, as a defendant.
The law firm, which specializes in representing victims of foodborne illness, is investigating claims from other E. coli sufferers who ate at Taco Bell restaurants recently, said attorney Drew Falkenstein.
Green onions are one of several non-meat ingredients Taco Bell sells that the Food and Drug Administration is testing for E. coli contamination. As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control had confirmed 58 E. coli cases linked to Taco Bell foods but has not identified a contamination source.
On Dec. 7, a lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell Corp. by the family of an 11-year-old New York boy who was diagnosed with an E. coli bacterial infection after eating three tacos from a unit in Riverhead, N.Y., a town in Suffolk County.
On Friday, authorities from adjacent Nassau County said tests had conclusively determined that E.coli had contaminated green onions taken from a Taco Bell. Suffolk officials reportedly found traces of the potentially lethal E. coli 0157:H7 strain in packaged green onions taken from a Taco Bell there earlier in the week.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that health departments in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina and Utah had reported a total of 63 cases of the severe illness occurring between Nov. 20 and Dec. 2. Most victims had reported becoming sick after eating at Taco Bell restaurants. Some news reports have pegged the tally of victims at more than 200 people in six states.
Taco Bell said Sunday that it had sampled 150 samples of various foodstuffs and ingredients used in its food.
On the basis of earlier, preliminary tests, Taco Bell has removed green onions from the chain’s 5,800 domestic restaurants and 82 Canadian stores. It is unclear how many units are still closed because of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, a second lawsuit has been filed against the chain and parent Yum! Brands, alleging both were negligent in selling food contaminated with a dangerous form of the E. coli bacteria.
Seattle law firm Marler Clark filed a suit in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Dec. 8 on behalf of a man who is recovering from E. coli symptoms suffered after eating at a Taco there. This suit also names Boskovich Farms of Oxnard, Calif., which grew green onions supplied to Taco Bell, as a defendant.
The law firm, which specializes in representing victims of foodborne illness, is investigating claims from other E. coli sufferers who ate at Taco Bell restaurants recently, said attorney Drew Falkenstein.
Green onions are one of several non-meat ingredients Taco Bell sells that the Food and Drug Administration is testing for E. coli contamination. As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control had confirmed 58 E. coli cases linked to Taco Bell foods but has not identified a contamination source.
On Dec. 7, a lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell Corp. by the family of an 11-year-old New York boy who was diagnosed with an E. coli bacterial infection after eating three tacos from a unit in Riverhead, N.Y., a town in Suffolk County.
On Friday, authorities from adjacent Nassau County said tests had conclusively determined that E.coli had contaminated green onions taken from a Taco Bell. Suffolk officials reportedly found traces of the potentially lethal E. coli 0157:H7 strain in packaged green onions taken from a Taco Bell there earlier in the week.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that health departments in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina and Utah had reported a total of 63 cases of the severe illness occurring between Nov. 20 and Dec. 2. Most victims had reported becoming sick after eating at Taco Bell restaurants. Some news reports have pegged the tally of victims at more than 200 people in six states.
Taco Bell said Sunday that it had sampled 150 samples of various foodstuffs and ingredients used in its food.
On the basis of earlier, preliminary tests, Taco Bell has removed green onions from the chain’s 5,800 domestic restaurants and 82 Canadian stores. It is unclear how many units are still closed because of the outbreak.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Operators support produce testing, vendor-focused safety proposals
by Alan Liddle of Nations Restaurant News
MONTEREY , Calif. (Apr. 2) Forty-three restaurant chains and companies meeting here March 30 agreed that suppliers should be required to test produce for dangerous pathogens such as the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Attendees of the NRA's two-day Produce Safety & the Foodservice Industry conference also reached a consensus that restaurant food should be protected through produce industry safety proposals for leafy greens and other so-called fresh-cut products, an official said. She added that support was voiced for the creation of additional safety standards and the passage of binding federal regulations.
"Hopefully, working with vendors, we can encourage movement forward, we can encourage research and we can encourage regulation," said Donna Garren, vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the Washington-based association. Her comments came after a session on what the restaurant industry expects of its suppliers in terms of produce safety. The session was closed to reporters.
The conference was co-sponsored by Taco Bell, which last year suffered a regional E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to bagged lettuce. Seventy customers were confirmed to have been sickened by E. coli and hundreds more reported symptoms. Yum! Brands Inc., the quick-service chain's parent, said the outbreak cost it $20 million in operating profits.
Taco Bell vice president of quality assurance and product development Anna Ohki spoke at the event. She said operators should press produce growers and processors to test for pathogens in fields, irrigation water and finished products. They should also be pressured to fence fields to keep out animals and "broaden the scope of their food safety audits," she said.
The chain is not alone in believing produce suppliers should test for pathogens, according to Garren. Indeed, she said, conference attendees agreed during the closed-door session hat the time was right to "make it a requirement."
The food-safety metrics being endorsed in the short term by the NRA and some of its members are included in the "Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement," recently adopted by processors and shippers in California. State public health and U.S. Food & Drug Administration officials have backed the metrics included in the agreement as desirable short-term safety measures that may serve as a model for produce suppliers in other states and countries.
Though the processors and shippers who participate in the California agreement do so voluntarily, they are bound by law to follow the provisions of the program once they become signatories, supporters say. Among those provisions is the requirement that participants buy greens only from growers who comply with the associated food safety metrics and agree to inspections by employees of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The NRA's Garren indicated that foodservice operators can use the applicable safety metrics from the California agreement to guide suppliers of produce from all growing regions.
"We want application [of the metrics] across the board," she said.
Among conference attendees were representatives of Applebee's International Inc., Arby's Restaurant Group, Brinker International Inc., Buffets Inc., Burger King Corp., Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, McDonald's Corp., Panera Bread and Rare Hospitality International Inc.
In all, there have been 22 illness outbreaks tied to leafy greens during the past 12 years. Among them was last year's E. coli contamination of bagged, fresh spinach that killed three people and sickened as many as 4,000 others, according to some estimates that try to track related but unreported illnesses.
MONTEREY , Calif. (Apr. 2) Forty-three restaurant chains and companies meeting here March 30 agreed that suppliers should be required to test produce for dangerous pathogens such as the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Attendees of the NRA's two-day Produce Safety & the Foodservice Industry conference also reached a consensus that restaurant food should be protected through produce industry safety proposals for leafy greens and other so-called fresh-cut products, an official said. She added that support was voiced for the creation of additional safety standards and the passage of binding federal regulations.
"Hopefully, working with vendors, we can encourage movement forward, we can encourage research and we can encourage regulation," said Donna Garren, vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the Washington-based association. Her comments came after a session on what the restaurant industry expects of its suppliers in terms of produce safety. The session was closed to reporters.
The conference was co-sponsored by Taco Bell, which last year suffered a regional E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to bagged lettuce. Seventy customers were confirmed to have been sickened by E. coli and hundreds more reported symptoms. Yum! Brands Inc., the quick-service chain's parent, said the outbreak cost it $20 million in operating profits.
Taco Bell vice president of quality assurance and product development Anna Ohki spoke at the event. She said operators should press produce growers and processors to test for pathogens in fields, irrigation water and finished products. They should also be pressured to fence fields to keep out animals and "broaden the scope of their food safety audits," she said.
The chain is not alone in believing produce suppliers should test for pathogens, according to Garren. Indeed, she said, conference attendees agreed during the closed-door session hat the time was right to "make it a requirement."
The food-safety metrics being endorsed in the short term by the NRA and some of its members are included in the "Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement," recently adopted by processors and shippers in California. State public health and U.S. Food & Drug Administration officials have backed the metrics included in the agreement as desirable short-term safety measures that may serve as a model for produce suppliers in other states and countries.
Though the processors and shippers who participate in the California agreement do so voluntarily, they are bound by law to follow the provisions of the program once they become signatories, supporters say. Among those provisions is the requirement that participants buy greens only from growers who comply with the associated food safety metrics and agree to inspections by employees of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The NRA's Garren indicated that foodservice operators can use the applicable safety metrics from the California agreement to guide suppliers of produce from all growing regions.
"We want application [of the metrics] across the board," she said.
Among conference attendees were representatives of Applebee's International Inc., Arby's Restaurant Group, Brinker International Inc., Buffets Inc., Burger King Corp., Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, McDonald's Corp., Panera Bread and Rare Hospitality International Inc.
In all, there have been 22 illness outbreaks tied to leafy greens during the past 12 years. Among them was last year's E. coli contamination of bagged, fresh spinach that killed three people and sickened as many as 4,000 others, according to some estimates that try to track related but unreported illnesses.
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