The Salmonella outbreak that has been traced to the La Luz Mexican Restaurant in Old Town in Fort Collins, Colorado has grown to include 19 people, according to news reports. That is an increase of 13 patients since the first outbreak notice on August 22, 2018.
Officials at the Larimar County Department of Health and Environment are asking anyone who ate at that facility earlier this month and has been sick with the symptoms of Salmonella food poisoning to report it to public health officials.
You can fill out this form provided by the Larimer Health Department if you ate at that restaurant and have been experiencing vomiting, diarrhea that may be bloody, nausea, stomach cramps, and fever. These symptoms usually start a few hours to a few days after ingesting food contaminated with this pathogen. The first report of illness was received on August 17, 2018.
Two other La Luz Mexican Restaurant locations in Colorado are not affected by this outbreak. The Old Town La Luz Restaurant, which closed after this outbreak was announced, has been cooperating with this investigation and staff has attended a ServSafe Food Handler Program.
The restaurant was inspected on August 17, the day the first illness was reported, and the kitchen was rated as “fair.” According to the inspection report, there were food temperature violations and flies in the kitchen. The restaurant corrected those violations by another inspection on August 22, 2018.
You can contact lawyer Fred Pritzker for help at 1-888-377-8900.
Food safety attorney Fred Pritzker, who has represented many clients sickened with Salmonella infections linked to restaurants, said, “Restaurant management must take food inspection results seriously and make sure that their staff understands safe food handling. These types of outbreaks are preventable.”
On January 5, 2018, the restaurant received a rating of “unacceptable,” according to the inspection reports. Areas rated as “out of compliance” included food cooling and cold holding, non-food contact surfaces clean, good hygienic practices, ready-to-eat food protected form bare hand contact, in-use utensils & cutting boards cleaned once every four hours, and handwashing sinks supplied with soap and towels. Many of these same issues were noted in the August 17, 2018 inspection. with the addition of evidence of insects.
Officials have not identified the age range of those sickened in this outbreak, where the patients live, or whether or not anyone has been hospitalized. We also don’t know the dates of illness onset, with the exception of the first illness report.
