Durban eatery confirms salmonella poisoned its patrons

A Durban eatery has confirmed that certain food samples submitted for laboratory testing have emerged positive for traces of salmonella.

Two weeks ago at least 20 people were hospitalised with suspected salmonella poisoning after eating at the popular Old Town Italy restaurant in Umhlanga.

Salmonella is most often contracted by eating raw or undercooked meat, poultry and eggs and causes diarrhoea, fever, chills and abdominal pain.

The restaurant has since completely removed hollandaise sauce - a mixture of egg yolk,melted butter and lemon juice - from its breakfast menu. In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Friday the restaurant said test results from two independent laboratories had been submitted to them.

“We can confirm the samples taken from our restaurant for the period 03 November 2018 to 09 November 2018 have tested positive for salmonella.

“However, it is important to highlight that the positive salmonella test results were limited to the hollandaise sauce, rocket and egg mix only.”

The restaurant said additional food items, surface swabs and equipment swabs had tested negative.

“We carried out pathology tests on our staff members. We confirm that three of our staff members tested positive for traces of carrying salmonella.

"They were removed from service, will remain in our employ while we provide them with medical assistance, to ensure their full recovery.”

Old Town Italy has also appointed an independent tracing and recovery agency “to investigate the cold chain of preferred suppliers as an additional precaution, not only for us but for the industry.

“The Department of Health has also visited and tested our facility and we await their feedback but are not in receipt of any immediate requirements at this time."

The restaurant added that a fell deep-clean sanitisation was done following a complete shutdown of its kitchen. It has also installed an alarm mechanism in its kitchen that will ensure staff wash their hands and work stations every 30 minutes.

“We are washing our eggs and all vegetable products in a Medisure solution before they enter the kitchen, this is a chlorine-based disinfectant solution that complies to bacteriological requirements of SANS 1196.

“To those customers who were affected by this unfortunate outbreak, we truly and humbly apologise.

“Each affected customer has been contacted by us personally and our insurers... will continue to hold both our hands through this claim process.”

The restaurant said it would resume regular breakfast trading at the Umhlanga branch on Saturday, including the serving of eggs.