The Windmill Winery, in Florence, Az., is a popular wedding location and also provides dining and wine-tasting events. Now, it has had its food establishment permit revoked for the time being. The Pinal County Public Health Services District took the strong action after it became aware of an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning following a March 19th wedding on the premises. As part of the investigation, Pinal County health investigators soon discovered that the owner, Harold Christ, had exceeded his legally allowable level of food preparation and used a non-permitted caterer. According to Health District Director Tom Schryer, these “are serious violations of the Pinal County Environmental Health Code and Arizona state statute.” He also told local reporters that: “Our inspection and preliminary review of the practices of this operator found several potential sources of this outbreak, but it will take at least the next several days to determine the cause . . . While we search for an exact cause the prudent thing to do is suspend food service in the facility so that is the action I am taking today.”
As of April 3rd, 22 attendees had been identified as having salmonellosis, including four of those victims who were hospitalized as a result. This number is expected to grow, however, now that the outbreak has been publicized and additional victims come forward. Most of the victims of salmonellosis get ill 12 to 72 hours after they eat the tainted food, and experience fever, diarrhea, or abdominal cramping. While these usually pass in week or so, in some cases long term illnesses like IBS, IBD or arthritis have been known to occur, and can be severe. For those with a compromised immune system, hospitalization may be required and the illness can be life threatening. At least one of those hospitalized in this outbreak was a child.
For more information on this or other food borne illness outbreaks, call the salmonella lawyers at Ron Simon & Associates at 1-888-335-4901.
