LAKE FOREST, CALIF. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
As Orange County health authorities worked to determine the source of the contamination and complete testing on all employees, officials of San Diego-based parent company Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. shut down the salad bar-buffet operation almost a week after seven initial illnesses, including three hospitalizations, were reported. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Pamela Ritz, a Souplantation spokeswoman working with its risk management department, on April 8 said the health department had restricted the branch’s permit to operate and decided to become “regulatorily involved with the reopening.” Before the closure, the restaurant was restocked with new ingredients, had been “throwing out food every night, and doing other extraordinary things” as precautions, she explained. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
However, DNA testing of the restaurant’s foodstuffs and checks at the various external facilities that prepare products for Souplantation’s 34 local outlets had found nothing that could be linked to the initial infections on March 23 or March 24, Ritz said. The 12th infection, of a juvenile who was the 10th victim under age 18, was determined to have occurred March 25. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
As of presstime, no suspected source of the bacterial infections had been identified, and a reopening date for the chain’s Foothill Ranch outlet in Lake Forest had not been set. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
In November and December, Taco Bell voluntarily closed 90 units in four states after an illness outbreak that was blamed on the potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. Some of those outlets remained shuttered for up to two weeks. More than 70 people fell ill in that outbreak, which eventually was linked to prewashed bagged lettuce. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Restaurants often close after reports of foodborne illness, even for just a day. But experts say the decision to close depends entirely on circumstances and the health officials involved. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
“It’s typical to close immediately, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that if you don’t, it’s wrong,” said foodservice consultant Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of WD Partners in Columbus, Ohio. “You have to decide what is the right thing to do given the information you have at the moment.” —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
In such cases, however, the information necessary for such a decision may not come for days or weeks after illnesses are first reported. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
One of the victims of the Southern California Souplantation branch was a busboy who ate meals at the restaurant, though health officials said it was not clear as of presstime whether the man was infected at the restaurant or by an outside source. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
No other Souplantation restaurant was connected to any E. coli illnesses. Outside California, the chain’s branches are named Sweet Tomatoes. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Initially, Orange County health officials said a thorough investigation had revealed no cause for closure, though at the time the agency still was awaiting the results of testing. The officials indicated that the detected substrain of the E. coli O157:H7 type had not been found before in Southern California and was not the same as the one linked to the spinach grown near Salinas Valley, Calif., that was blamed for an outbreak last year that killed three people and sickened 4,000 others. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
The fact that reports of illnesses linked to the Souplantation branch appeared to be limited to customers who dined there within a three-day period indicated that guests were no longer at risk, health officials said. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Spokeswoman Ritz said the company had been willing to close the restaurant before April 6, and that the outlet’s continued operation before then was based on advice from the health department. She said it was necessary to “give the health department time to do their investigation and their science.” —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
“In some cases, it’s helpful to remain static while they go through their processes,” she said. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
One challenge, Ritz noted, was that Souplantation is known for its 55-foot-long salad bar with more than 300 items. The all-you-can-eat menu also includes self-service islands offering various soups, breads and desserts. The Lake Forest unit served an estimated 1,000 meals per day. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Rob Poetsch, a spokesman for Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell Corp., said the decision to close the affected branches last year was voluntary. Some of those units stayed closed longer than others because of the complexities of reopening. The outbreak—which is estimated to have cost parent Yum! Brands Inc. $20 million in lost operating profit—involved reports of illnesses over about three weeks and in multiple locales, making the source more difficult to identify. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Garden Fresh officials, as of presstime, were careful not to implicate as suspect any particular type of foodstuff or other agent as the possible source of contamination. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Product liability litigator William Marler, of the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark, said Souplantation’s buffet-style operation made it “highly unlikely that they’ll find a particular food source” of the infections. Because of their self-service format, buffets present a multitude of opportunities for cross-contamination, and when people are piling a variety of dishes on their plates, it’s often difficult for them to remember exactly what they ate, he said. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Marler, whose firm specializes in representing victims of foodborne illnesses, said three Souplantation customers had contacted his firm as of early April. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Buffet concepts often are sources of such outbreaks, Marler added. For example, at least 62 E. coli illnesses in 2000, including one fatality, that were traced to two franchised Sizzler restaurants in Wisconsin were blamed on cross-contamination of salad bar items that came into kitchen contact with preparation surfaces on which E. coli-tainted meat had been cut. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
However, M. Steven Liff, managing director of Sun Capital Partners Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., disagrees that buffet concepts are more at risk. The firm owns a majority share of Garden Fresh and a minority interest in San Antonio-based Souper Salad, a similar salad-bar-focused chain of 87 units. Both Souplantation and Souper Salad were founded in 1978. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
“Garden Fresh has been around for a long time, as has Souper Salad, and they’ve never had an incident before,” Liff said. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.
Last year, after the lethal E. coli outbreak was linked to bagged spinach, Garden Fresh and Souper Salad “weren’t impacted at all,” Liff said. “We were so careful with our food inspections, we never had a blip” in sales. —A Souplantation restaurant linked to at least 12 cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infections was closed April 6 when new illnesses, of a customer and an employee, were confirmed after the branch of the 100-unit chain had remained open following initial rounds of sicknesses.