A café in the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas, was closed after nearly 300 individuals became sick with Shigella poisoning. The Salsarita’s Restaurant is at the heart of an investigation of 275 illnesses in nine states, this according to a spokesperson for the Benton County Health Department (BCHD) which has conducted at least two inspections of Salsarita in the wake of the outbreak. The Arkansas Health Department (AHD) has confirmed that many of the victims were employees of Walmart, but others have also been sickened.
The cause of the outbreak has not been conclusively determined, but among the violation in the June 18th inspection were observations that raw chicken was dripping onto bottled drinks. This was just one of five “priority” violations found in the June 18th inspection – along with employees not washing their hands and not wearing gloves when touching food (there were also four non-priority violations). The violations point toward the possibility of cross-contamination. In the June 23rd inspection, only 2 of these observations had been adequately corrected.
The Salsarita Restaurant has since been reopened.
The company managing the Salsarita Restaurant, Eurest, has been working on retraining its staff and has hired an outside firm to work to bring it into compliance with appropriate standards, including safe food preparation and storage.
At present, it remains unclear how many of the nearly 275 identified victims have been hospitalized. The victims who consumed Shigella report the onset of Shigellosis a day or two after eating at the Salsarita Restaurant. They report diarrhea, fever, headaches, fatigue, and stomach cramps. These victims are also being warned that Shigellosis is infectious, or contagious. The elderly and very young are especially susceptible to long-term illness and victims are encouraged to minimize contact with these vulnerable individuals while ill.
