At least 160 people became ill following a weekend church supper in Malpeque, Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada).

The Charlottetown Guardian reports the province's Health Department must wait "several days'' before receiving lab results to help pinpoint the exact cause.

Deputy chief public health officer Dr. Lamont Sweet says all indications are the cause of the wide spread illness was foodborne. However, the ongoing investigation has yet to determine if a virus or bacteria is responsible.

Sweet says the illnesses, mainly diarrhea but also some cases of abdominal pain and nausea, appear linked to the 500 meals that were sold Saturday at Princetown United Church, most as takeout dinners. Many were ill for only a few hours but others reported being sick for 24 hours or longer, he said.

If this outbreak of illness proves to be food-borne, this will mark only the third time in the past 22 years that community meals have resulted in food-borne illness on P.E.I.

Any remaining food purchased from the church on the weekend should be tossed out, he added.

The meal was roast beef, vegetables, rolls and desserts. A portion of the meal was prepared on site and some of the items, including desserts, were brought into the venue.

In further evidence of how seemingly good people confuse food safety with food pornography, Francine Thorpe, the owner of a Prince Edward Island restaurant at the center of a norovirus outbreak that has now sickened up to 48 people decided to make a public statement:

“In our history we are proud to say that we have never been cited for any food-related infractions by provincial health officials. … We take pride in our food service, our people and more importantly we value our loyal, cherished customers. We maintain a modern, sanitary kitchen, employing some of the best experienced food preparation people in the business. We try to buy local products and serve only the very best of fresh ingredients. We very much regret what has transpired and are determined to find out exactly what happened.”

Local and fresh do not mean safe. Never been cited for food infractions doesn’t mean you haven’t made people barf, or that your employees haven’t shown up for work while sick. Tell the good citizens of PEI about your employee training and hygiene procedures rather than how local and fresh your ingredients are. It has to do with a lot of people barfing.