At Grasch Foods, an upscale grocery store in Brookfield Wis., the tuna Salmonella outbreak caused a minor blip in sushi bar sales and then things went right back to normal, according to Seafood Manger, John Edgerton.
Grasch buys only fresh fish for the sushi bar and Edgerton does most of the processing himself, he said, so the store was not among those affected by the recall of tainted ground frozen tuna product, called Nakaochi Scrape, from Moon Marine USA Corp. in California.
With 14 confirmed cases of salmonellosis, Wisconsin was hit hard by the tuna sushi Salmonella outbreak, which has sickened 160 people in 20 states and the District of Columbia, according to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The only states with more confirmed cases of Salmonella infection are New York with 30 and Massachusetts with 23. Like its neighbor Wisconsin, Illinois has 14.
At least three of those sickened in Wisconsin were hospitalized. But the severity and scope of the outbreak has not had an impact on sales for some Wisconsin grocers. Grocery store chains that do not use Moon Marine as a supplier report that their sushi sales have been unaffected by the outbreak. They include Grasch’s, Woodman’s and grocery stores operated by Roundy’s Corp. which include Pick N Save, Copps, Marianos, Metro Market and Rainbow stores, according to company spokespeople.
The investigation into the outbreak is ongoing as local, state and federal investigators work to identify new cases, according to the CDC.
