Health Concerns

Food Poisoning Incident at Delfina Used to Argue for Better Public Health Reporting

Two dozen people got sick after a private party at Delfina this past December, and now word has leaked out. The Health Department was surprised to learn, after being contacted by a reporter at the Bay Citizen, that there had been such an incident involving so many people. The restaurant determined it was likely the result of tainted salad greens — at least one vegetarian got sick so they ruled out a bunch of the dishes — and there have been no other such incidents before or since. But the Bay Citizen uses it as an argument for a better system of reporting to public health agencies, and a law making these reports mandatory.

Raj Bhatia at the city’s department of environmental health says that in his thirteen years “I have not encountered a case where an outbreak of this magnitude was not reported directly by an ill consumer or a medical provider to the department.” But it seems likely that such incidents do frequently go unreported — we still don’t know who got Michael Bauer sick last summer! — and we’re sure Delfina would have preferred that a reporter hadn’t caught wind of this one. The Bay Citizen does say that Delfina routinely passes their health inspections and the incident does not appear to have been any fault of the kitchen.

Oh, but then they bring up Contagion. Ugh.

Unreported Food Poisoning Cases Reflect Gap in Food Safety Net [Bay Citizen]

Food Poisoning Incident at Delfina Used to Argue for Better Public Health