"it's not food poisoning, it's likely norovirus." Um, sometimes they are the same
According to the Dumfries & Galloway Standard (UK), a Dumfries hotel has temporarily shut after 20 patrons who ate there complained of illnesses.
Owner Aileen McGhie told the Standard she was not ordered to close the three-star hotel, and took the decision to do so herself in a bid to clean the premises from top to bottom.
She said: “A few people fell ill last week after being a guest or a diner at the hotel and we are still waiting for test results. I called environmental health myself and it is assumed it is an outbreak of the Norovirus. Rumours that it is food poisoning are completely false.
Um, Aileen, sometimes they are the same thing. While cruiseships and hospitals get a lot of press for norovirus, the majority of reported norovirus outbreaks are associated with foodservice settings or events, and have higher attack rates than other settings. While the difference between classical food poisoning might matter to you, many of the control measures are the same (reducing cross-contamination, good personal hygiene, doing a good job at cleaning up barf).
Owner Aiellen McGhie went on to say:
“Twenty people is not actually a high number considering the hundreds of people we had in the hotel that week."
It's possible that one dish or food handler is implicated in -- my guess is that not everyone ate everything on the menu. Foodborne illness cases are also consistently under reported and might contribute to the "low numbers". And it probably doesn't matter to the barfing customers.
Manager served ice cream allegedly containing poop; chef offers his DNA for testing
The gelato caper gripping Australia had several twists and a couple of great soundbites Tuesday morning (Australia time).
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that security camera footage of an incident in which staff at the Coogee Bay Hotel allegedly served a family a cup of gelato laced with human faeces shows the dessert being delivered to the family by the restaurant's manager. …
"She was concerned about the family's experience and she had the idea of offering a complimentary dessert to try and make some amends," said the hotel's general manager, Tony Williams.
Meanwhile, the family's lawyer, Steven Lewis, of Slater & Gordon, also rubbished newspaper reports the family had links to a rival pub as a "Kevin Bacon … six degrees of separation [defence]. My question is: 'Did Kevin Bacon put the faeces in the ice-cream?"'.
Stephen and Jessica Whyte, along with their three young children and another family, were at the hotel to watch the NRL grand final, but after a series of complaints became suspicious when they were given a free bowl of gelato. "The real issue is that we were fed, as a family, shit, at someone's pub," Mr Whyte told 2UE.
Yesterday the NSW Food Authority announced it was investigating, and the hotel's management confirmed it had contacted Maroubra police in preparation for possible criminal charges against anyone who might have tampered with food at the hotel.
Meanwhile, the head chef at the Coogee Bay Hotel, Adam Wood, who had tendered his resignation before the incident and had continued to work at the hotel for several weeks afterwards, offered to put himself up for DNA testing.
Mr Wood's arrival was trumpeted by the hotel's general manager, Tony Williams, in a media statement about the hotel's revamped beer garden this month.
"Executive Chef Adam Wood [was] poached from Japan where he headed up kitchens for the Swissotel, Osaka and Foreign Correspondent's Press Club of Japan in Tokyo and brings extensive five star international and three hat experience with him," the statement read.
Why he resigned only weeks after being heralded as the hotel's most senior chef remains unclear.
Norovirus at Norwegian hotel hospitalizes 30, sickens dozens
Norway's Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) says norovirus – originating in staff or cold food served at a hotel buffet or both -- swept through the Clarion Hotel Gardermoen, near Oslo's main airport, Saturday afternoon and evening.
The victims included members of a national diabetes foundation attending a conference and what was supposed to be the foundation's 60th anniversary party.
Instead, most of them wound up vomiting and suffering from acute diarrhea, especially serious ailments for diabetics. More than 30 were taken to hospital, and scores of other visitors at the hotel also fell ill, including hotel staff and members of a band hired in to play at the foundation's party.
Here’s another norovirus infosheet from the past with some tips. The originals can be found at foodsafetyinfosheets.ksu.edu
Dirty drinking glasses in hotel rooms
WCPO in Cincinnati borrowed an idea that was first tried by a Fox television station in Atlanta. They placed hidden cameras into hotel rooms to watch housekeepers in action.
WCPO found that instead of washing the drinking glasses in guest rooms, they're just wiping them off and reusing them. And it's happening at big name hotels such as the Hilton.
In one case, it shows a housekeeper wiping the bathroom floor with a towel then using the same towel to wipe off drinking glasses.
WCPO found glasses being reused at hotel rooms in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas City, Phoenix, and Baltimore.
