The investigation into the outbreak ends with cross-contamination in the crosshairs



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Public health officials say they have concluded their investigation into a Salmonella outbreak tracked in a restaurant and food truck. As many as 230 people were infected.

Lambton Public Health, in the province of Ontario, Canada, reports that the illnesses among patrons of the Barakat restaurant in Sarnia and the Barakat food truck in A Coruña occurred between October 19 and 29. Business closed on October 30th. A new inspection will be conducted at both locations when they are ready for reopening.

“As part of the investigation, multiple follow-up inspections have been conducted at this food location and LPH is pleased that there is no continuing source of Salmonella infection related to this outbreak,” reports the public health agency.

“During the investigation, several samples of food and food ingredients were sent for testing and an epidemiological analysis of the data collected from the cases was conducted. Laboratory testing and data analysis did not indicate a specific food to attribute the cases to, leading public health investigators to suspect the outbreak was the result of cross-contamination of multiple food products. Epidemiological and laboratory analyzes indicated potential contamination of hummus-containing dishes, however the results were not conclusive.

At the time of publication of the update of the investigation, the health department had 45 confirmed patients and another 185 suspected. All reported eating food at one of the affected establishments, according to the public health report.

You can add more people to the list because it can take up to four weeks for individual cases to be registered by health agencies due to the time required for initial and confirmation tests.

Lambton Public Health’s investigation into this outbreak was conducted in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Health, Ontario Public Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

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