A number of health code violations, and at least 5 cases of a rare strain of salmonella (Salmonella Schwarzengrund) have led to the closure of the and Pho Tam Vietnamese restaurant, located at 1098 N. Orchard St. in Boise, Idaho. The first case of Salmonella Schwarzengrund was identified in February of this year, and the others thereafter. According to Boise’s KTVB, the Central District Health Department (CDHD) discovered a number of health code violations at Pho Tam in an inspection prompted by the reports of Salmonella Schwarzengrund. Local reports indicate that the inspection, which was not readily available, includes a number of violations, including at least two of which were for the same violations as in previous inspections. The restaurant was closed on April 9th and given 15 days to remedy these violations to re-obtain a permit.
The outbreak was confirmed by CDHD spokeswoman, Christine Myron, who added that health inspectors had gone to the restaurant just last week to test the food and surfaces at Pho Tam. She added that the “cultures that they grew did not come back with any salmonella, so they’ve not determined a definite source for the salmonella. We don’t know exactly how it may have gotten into the food at this point.”
According to a KTVB news report, aired yesterday, Long Doan (the owner) stated that the restaurant was closed for remodeling. But in a statement to the Idaho Statesman on April 7th, the owner appeared to admit that an outbreak had been linked to the Pho Tam, stating “I don’t know what happened. We try to be careful.”
There have been only four recorded outbreaks of rare Salmonella Schwarzengrund since 1996, this according to the Food Safety Program at Cornell University.
According to Salmonella Lawyer Ron Simon, “closing a restaurant for a few days or weeks in the aftermath of an outbreak is a prudent decision.” Simon noted that, in his experience with thousands of salmonella cases, it is often unclear how the salmonella was introduced into the establishment in the first place. But what we do know a great deal about is how to prevent the spread of salmonella through proper food handling and preparation, and clearly some of these standards were not followed at the Pho Tam in Boise. Closing the restaurant for a couple of weeks will enable the owners to clean and sanitize the establishment and to work on addressing failures in good food handling procedures. “Hopefully,” says Simon, “this experience will lead to safer food being prepared and sold at the Pho Tam and at other restaurants in Boise.”
