The Ambassel Bar and Restaurant on Jefferson Street in Seattle, Washington has been closed by health authorities after they discovered several health violations and associated it with a food poisoning outbreak. Public information officer for the Seattle and King County Health Department Katie Ross told Food Poisoning Bulletin that they are aware of two cases of E. coli associated with this restaurant in mid-February. She said that both cases were adults. One person was “briefly hospitalized” and both have recovered.
Seattle and King County health authorities closed the restaurant, which serves Ethiopian food, after a number of food safety violations were discovered and patrons who ate at the restaurant became ill. Five violations were listed on the notification of closure. They include: foods not protected from cross contamination, poor personal hygiene practices and insufficient handwashing; equipment not properly sanitized, handwashing facilities not working and an imminent health hazard: establishment linked to a foodborne illness outbreak.
Restaurant employees are a contributing factor in more than 65 percent of all foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S., according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Bacteria that causes disease can be transmitted directly from an infected food employee through food. That’s why restaurant employee health and personal hygiene are so important.
To reduce the risk of being linked to a food poisoning outbreak, the FDA recommends that restaurants train their employees to: understand what causes foodborne illness, practice good handwashing and personal hygiene, not touch ready-to-eat food with their bare hands, and stay home when they are sick. Ill employees pose the greatest risk to customers when they have specific symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever and infected cuts or burns with pus.
In the last few months, there have been a number of foodborne illness outbreaks linked to restaurants. In Canada, contaminated lettuce served at KFC and Taco Bell sickened 30 people. from January to February. During February in the United States, Billygan’s Roadhouse in Salmon Creek, Washington was closed when at least 22 customers developed gastroenteritis; there was a hepatitis scare at a Hooters in North Carolina, and seven people who ate at Ike’s restaurant in Michigan were part of a five-state Salmonella outbreak that sickened 18 people.
