Amy and I got married at city hall in 2006.

We had dinner with a couple of friends.

Then Amy barfed.

It wasn’t the food, it wasn’t the realization she had married me, it was thought to be her gall bladder.

Six people at a Roseville (California) wedding on the weekend ended up in the hospital, part of about 30 people who were sickened by food after the nuptials.
 

Chicago Breaking News reports that at least four people were hospitalized and 53 others reported illnesses after attending wedding parties this month at a banquet hall in south suburban Mokena, Illinois, leading Will County health officials to try to determine the cause.

The Health Department is looking for others who may have gotten sick after attending weddings at Di Nolfo's Banquet Inn and Catering on July 16 and 17.

Health officials believe the source of the illness is norovirus. Health officials collected and tested food from Di Nolfo's, 9425 W. 191st Street, but did not find any significant violations. None of Di Nolfo's employees have reported illnesses, officials said.
 

I didn’t even come up with that headline. Those science journal writers are developing a sense of humor.

Eriksen et al. write in Eurosurveillance today:

Food poisoning outbreaks caused by Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin occur occasionally in Europe but have become less common in recent years. This paper presents the microbiological and epidemiological results of a large C. perfringens outbreak occurring simultaneously at two weddings that used the same caterer.

The outbreak involved several London locations and required coordination across multiple agencies. A case-control study (n=134) was carried out to analyze possible associations between the food consumed and becoming ill. Food, environmental and stool samples were tested for common causative agents, including enterotoxigenic C. perfringens. The clinical presentation and the epidemiological findings were compatible with C. perfringens food poisoning and C. perfringens enterotoxin was detected in stool samples from two cases.

The case-control study found statistically significant associations between becoming ill and eating either a specific chicken or lamb dish prepared by the same food handler of the implicated catering company. A rapid outbreak investigation with preliminary real-time results and the successful collaboration between the agencies and the caterer led to timely identification and rectification of the failures in the food handling practices.

In the discussion, the authors write,

A blast chiller is normally used for cooling large quantities of food quickly by this particular caterer; however it was not being used appropriately at the time of the incident. Temperature control of foods during preparation, cooling, transportation and reheating was poor. Furthermore, the vans used for food transport had no refrigeration and these events took place in July. The evidence of insufficient hygiene, cooling and reheating at the catering company during transport and at both venues (according to environmental health department inspections) are in keeping with a toxin-related gastroenteritis outbreak, including C. perfringens.
 

The Jim and Pam wedding episode of The Office began last night with either a homage to the campfire story barf scene in Stand By Me, or Ben’s last car trip to Canada.

Either way, quite funny, and certainly worthy of something called, barfblog.com.