A Salmonella outbreak has been linked to an unnamed restaurant in Boise, ID. At present, five confirmed cases have been identified, but consistent the Central District Health Department in Boise’s public policy the restaurant has not been named. According to information officer Christine Myron, speaking about the restaurant, “we’ve gone in and inspected and looked at appropriate food safety controls . . . [but] have not determined a definite source yet, and they don’t know how it got into the food.” She also confirmed that the department’s inspectors collected samples of food from the restaurant but the cultures were negative. This is not unusual, however, says Salmonella Lawyer Ron Simon. “Food rotates quickly in most restaurant settings,” Simon stated, “and often the food responsible for an outbreak is often gone by the time inspectors field reports of food poisoning and health officials narrow in on the source of the outbreak. In many instances, this can take weeks.”
It is also common for a state or county health agency to withhold the name of a particular restaurant when an outbreak is being investigated. “They often withhold this information in the interests of gaining restaurant cooperation in future investigations,” says Simon.
At present, though the identity of the restaurant in this outbreak is being withheld, at least one report of salmonella, as yet unconfirmed, has been reported thorough social media of a salmonella illness linked to Andrade’s Mexican Restaurant in mid-March of this year. It remains to be seen, however, if this report can be substantiated and if, in fact, it is related to the reports coming out of the Central District Health Department in Boise.
