Health officials conducted several tests on food from local restaurant Casa Lopez after a salmonella outbreak poisoned at least 45 people who ate at the restaurant during Ohio University's Moms Weekend, April 30 to May 2.
Athens City-County Health Department sent food from the restaurant to the Ohio Department of Health for testing, said Athens Health Administrator Charles Hammer.
The Ohio Department of Health is still investigating the case, said Public Information Officer Jen House.
Salmonella poisoning comes from poultry and other meat products, said City-County Health Commissioner James Gaskell in a previous Post article. The most common symptoms of salmonella poisoning are cramps and diarrhea, but other symptoms include vomiting and fever, according to the article.
Casa Lopez's refrigerator and food preparation areas were not cool enough for health standards, according to inspections done by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Health after the outbreak.
Joaquin Machado, an assistant manager at the restaurant, said the cooling violations occurred because the inspectors came after a busy period when the kitchen was warm.
All of the violations have been corrected, according to inspection reports.
Machado said Casa Lopez has been enforcing safety regulations such as wearing gloves more consistently and has had the refrigerator repaired so it will not overheat. He said they still are unsure of what caused the outbreak.
We are behind the health department to get this done because business went down a little bit
he said.
Michael Foods, a distributor to Casa Lopez, pulled all of its liquid egg whites products after Casa Lopez and a barbecue restaurant in North Carolina reported salmonella poisoning, according to a May 21 letter from the company. The testing by Michael Foods and the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed negative results for salmonella, according to the letter.
Hammer said it is unlikely the egg whites caused the poisoning, but Michael Foods will not release the product for sale until all testing is completed.
Hammer said he is unsure about how long the process will take.
We hope to get to the bottom of this soon but it may take a while he said.
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Gail Burkhardt
