Health bosses last night urged the public to remain vigilant as the number of E.coli cases linked to the Adonis Kebab House on City Road in Cardiff rose to a possible nine, with three needing hospital treatment.

Since the E.coli O157 outbreak emerged on Friday, the number of confirmed cases has risen from five to seven – with another two under investigation – but could rise further, warned Dr Gwen Lowe, consultant in communicable disease control at Public Health Wales (PHW).

Maybe health inspectors and food service operators should be vigilant before people start barfing.
 

A kebab shop boss whose Shepherd's Bush premises were the source of the worst salmonella outbreak in London for at least 15 years was spared jail on Tuesday.

Mohammed Shafique, 49, who ran the Shahi Nan shop in Uxbridge Road, admitted to food hygiene breaches which caused the poisoning of 72 people, aged between five and 72.

Isleworth Crown Court heard at least 22 victims had to be treated in hospital and were kept in for an average of four days.

Shafique, who took over the shop in 2001, told health inspectors he sniffed the uncooked chicken deliveries to check they were safe to eat.

His premises was first visited in September 2009 after reports emerged that 17 people had visited St Mary's and Charing Cross Hospitals with food poisoning.

The numbers rose to 72 between September 9-18 – in the previous month there had been just 15 reported salmonella cases in the whole country.

Officials found traces of the bug on a light switch and in the fridge, where raw produce was stored next to cooked food, but the exact cause of the outbreak was never located.

Shafique, who admitted to four food hygiene breaches and failing to comply with EU regulations, was ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work and to pay £10,000 in fines, £1,000 costs and a £15 surcharge.

London Informer reports that health officials are investigating an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning linked to a Hammersmith and Fulham kebab shop which has left at least 41 people ill.

Of those 14 people have been confirmed as suffering from the potentially deadly infection.

Investigators from the North West London Health Protection Unit (HPA) are tracing the source of the infection and after early enquiries the Shahi Nan Kebab house in Uxbridge Road has voluntarily closed its doors.

Unfortunately, and no disrespect to the victims of either foodborne illness or choking on food, I can’t help but continue with the Kids in the Hall theme because it’s all I think of when I hear the word, kebab.
 

As a follow-up to last week's kebab/street meat post, today, the FSA published results of a survey of the content of 494 kebabs across the UK.

The study's authors report that without salad and sauces, the average kebab contains:
* 98% of daily salt
* nearly 1000 calories
* 148% of daily saturated fat

The authors also report the mislabelling of kebab meat, with meat species not declared or declared wrongly. In some instances, pork was present in samples labelled as Halal.

The Food Standards Agency’s Chief Scientist Andrew Wadge said:
'We welcome this new study. It is important that people are properly informed about the food they eat. However, our advice is that people don’t need to avoid doner kebabs altogether because of these findings. Like all types of food that is high in fat and salt they do not need to be cut out of your diet altogether."

Wonder if they sampled for pathogens, and if they found any.