I have recently (2 weeks)taken over the position as Head Chef/KM of the restaurant I work at. On Sunday (May 7) a friend of mine and two others came to dinner. They had a selection of things and shared almost everything.
Today I found out from my friend that one of the three people in their party became violently ill about 2-3 hours after eating my food.
This person was so sick they went to a hospital and had tests, etc, and is now thankfully OK (Tues May 9).
Apparently the doctors believe it was some kind of Norwalk Virus Variant, but they aren't sure yet.
He ate chicken, salad (strong possible culprit) and some other stuff, no shellfish nor any raw/rare meats.
The victim also contacted the local health department, which has me quite alarmed, but maybe they can determine exactly WTF happened.
I'm obviously very concerned, worried and upset about this, however I did some quick research on the Norwalk and other food borne illnesses, and from what I can gather from the web (and what I learned from Health Dept literature etc., over the years as a cook) is this:
Most if not all FBI takes at least 24-48 hours after ingestion to become symptomatic.
In other words it takes a person at least a day AFTER they eat contaminated food before they get sick.
This would put me and my staff in the clear, right?
The person ate the deadly food the day before eating at my place, correct?
It's all about the timing-of-the-illness vs when-you-ate-what, right?
Sooo, if any of you have had any experiences with this type of thing, please post your experiences. I tried to search the web for examples of 'forensic' investigations of restaurants and foodborne illnesses, but couldn't find anything particularly relevant.
BTW, hello all, this is my first post. I've been thinking about getting online with fellow restaurant colleagues for some time. I'm looking forward to checking this forum out in the future. It looks like one of the better cook's message boards I've seen.
Thanks in advance, Sean
Today I found out from my friend that one of the three people in their party became violently ill about 2-3 hours after eating my food.
This person was so sick they went to a hospital and had tests, etc, and is now thankfully OK (Tues May 9).
Apparently the doctors believe it was some kind of Norwalk Virus Variant, but they aren't sure yet.
He ate chicken, salad (strong possible culprit) and some other stuff, no shellfish nor any raw/rare meats.
The victim also contacted the local health department, which has me quite alarmed, but maybe they can determine exactly WTF happened.
I'm obviously very concerned, worried and upset about this, however I did some quick research on the Norwalk and other food borne illnesses, and from what I can gather from the web (and what I learned from Health Dept literature etc., over the years as a cook) is this:
Most if not all FBI takes at least 24-48 hours after ingestion to become symptomatic.
In other words it takes a person at least a day AFTER they eat contaminated food before they get sick.
This would put me and my staff in the clear, right?
The person ate the deadly food the day before eating at my place, correct?
It's all about the timing-of-the-illness vs when-you-ate-what, right?
Sooo, if any of you have had any experiences with this type of thing, please post your experiences. I tried to search the web for examples of 'forensic' investigations of restaurants and foodborne illnesses, but couldn't find anything particularly relevant.
BTW, hello all, this is my first post. I've been thinking about getting online with fellow restaurant colleagues for some time. I'm looking forward to checking this forum out in the future. It looks like one of the better cook's message boards I've seen.
Thanks in advance, Sean
