Not quite on the menu -- E. coli outbreak shuts restaurant
Odd vector though -- from
WCNC-TV:
Restaurant linked to E. coli shut down
CHINA GROVE, N.C. – Captain’s Galley, the Rowan County restaurant linked to an E. coli outbreak, has been shut down after health officials confirmed that a goat was slaughtered in the restaurant kitchen.
The Rowan County Health Department announced today they learned of the slaughter from an anonymous tip by a former employee, which was confirmed by management and ownership.
They’re not saying the slaughter is the exact cause of the E. coli outbreak, which sickened 20 people and killed one woman.
Rowan County Health Director Leonard Wood isn't sure what happened to the goat, if it was cooked or taken away. It was not served to customers.
It also is not the confirmed cause of the E. coli outbreak because there's no meat sample to test, he said.
A bit more:
Officials say it happened in the kitchen sometime between May 11 and May 20, after the restaurant was closed for the night.
It is possible that kitchen utensils used to slaughter the goat may have been used later on in other food preparation, but that has not been confirmed.
One last bit:
Wood says the cook staff is Latino. A local goat farmer says they're a popular food source because one goat can feed a family for a month.
I can see wanting to use a commercial kitchen to prep a large animal but to do the actual slaughter and butchering there is unthinkable. The sanitation needs are so much higher for a slaughterhouse than for a restaurant and conflating the two is bound to cause problems (which it did). The people who did this should have had some inkling (after all, it was done there and not in their own kitchens.)
Posted by DaveH at June 18, 2007 10:18 PM
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