Posted: May 4th, 2011 - 7:34am by Doug Powell

Serving raw meat remains a bad idea as a woman in Japan died Wednesday of food poisoning linked to a raw meat dish at a restaurant chain in central Japan.

The woman had eaten yukhoe, similar to tartare, at the same restaurant in Tonami, Toyama prefecture, where a 6-year-old boy had fallen ill and died Friday after eating the same dish, Jiji Press reported. The restaurant is run by Foods Forus Co, based in nearby Kanazawa.

Another boy died a week ago in Fukui prefecture after eating the same dish at another of the company's restaurants. Both boys were infected with E coli O111 strain.

Jiji reported Tuesday that 56 other people were confirmed to be suffering from food poisoning after eating the same dish at four of the company's restaurants.

The company said at a news conference that it had failed for the last two years to conduct hygiene inspections of raw meat supplied for the dish by a Tokyo-based wholesaler.