Following last week’s report of a supposed outbreak of foodborne illness last month at the fancy Delfina eatery in San Francisco that was not reported to public health types, Inside Scoop SF reports that Delfina has now provided a statement, complete with dick fingers and exclamation marks.

This unfortunate incident is an isolated case and happened to a private party. There is no reason for any alarm or panic from our customers or throughout our city. We are confident that this is not a part of an epidemic or outbreak and are still working with the health department. We would like to assure the public that there is no “tainted lettuce” outbreak in San Francisco as reported by SFist and then spread throughout the Internet. Below is our account of the incident:

A group of fifty rented out the restaurant for a private dinner with a set menu for their holiday party on December 10, approximately one month ago.

A day-and-a-half later we were informed that approximately half the group reported symptoms consistent with those of food poisoning.

We believe we narrowed the culprit down to three of the most likely menu items from the private party menu. We contacted the purveyors of the most suspect ingredients to inform them of what happened

After contacting the Department of Health we decided not to report it since it was a contained isolated incident.

At the end of the day, and as we expressed to the affected group, we take full responsibility and are truly sorry to be the cause of their discomfort. We are in the business of providing pleasure, not misery!

There’s a whole bunch of folks who like to protect the reputation of raw oysters, and we’ve heard from them before.

But it’s raw, and carries risks.

Based on blog reports, the San Francisco Oysterfest last month featured raw oysters, beer and a lot of barf.

"I am calling this event Salmonella-fest" wrote one yelper who, not surprisingly, gave the event just one star. Others wrote of suffering high fevers, shaking and even visiting the emergency room.

The Department of Public Health was on the case -- and has determined the culprit was "campylobacter."

Eileen Shields, spokeswoman for the health department, said investigators couldn't determine whether the bacteria was in the oysters, beer or any number of other food items served at the fest. After all, the food was all gone by the time word of food poisoning had gotten out.

But rest assured, oyster lovers. Shields said there's no ongoing concern.

Maybe San Fran should follow how close the human shit comes to oyster beds. Or how often food service employees wash their hands.
 

San Francisco is playing catch up with its California brethren and has finally decided to post closure notices on restaurants considered to be health hazards.

Mission Local reports the president of the Health Commission also promised to propose further policy changes to boost restaurant inspections and help diners more easily find a restaurant’s health score.

That don’t mean much.

Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, San Francisco’s director of occupational and environmental health, said,

“We serve the entire population of the city,” underscoring the need for information regarding health code compliance to be made publicly available.

After the meeting, Bhatia said he would advocate for more transparency within the food safety inspection program, including posting inspection scores within five feet of a restaurant’s entrance — which is the policy in cities such as Los Angeles and New York.

In 2004, Supervisor Chris Daly advocated a letter-grade system for restaurant inspections, which Los Angeles and now New York use. The system would have ranked restaurants by a series of letter grades from A to D, based on health code compliance, and would have required them to post that grade in plain view. The executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association at the time called the grades “scarlet letters.”

The ordinance faced stiff opposition and was ultimately defeated. The present scoring system was a compromise resulting from that effort, Bhatia said. The system offers more granularity into a restaurant’s health code practices, he said, but conceded that “scores are imperfect.”