Salmonella

	CTV Ottawa
	Employee fired over salmonella outbreak An Ottawa catering company is being investigated by Public Health after more than a dozen lab-confirmed cases of salmonella links back to the lunch they all ate. Updated: Tue Mar. 27 2012 12:56:36 PM ctvottawa.ca An employee of the Ottawa catering company involved in the city's salmonella outbreak has been fired after not following proper food handling procedures. Jonathan Morris, who owns the Lunch Lady Group, confirmed the news in a letter to parents Tuesday. "The Lunch Lady Group guidelines on handling raw meat and poultry were not properly followed by one individual," the statement read. "This person had the responsibility for ensuring that safe food handling guidelines were followed to the letter. This person is no longer working in my kitchens." Morris said the salmonella outbreak can be tracked to ground beef used in preparing the catered meals. The Lunch Lady plans to reopen its kitchens this week. Fifty people contracted salmonella during the outbreak. URL: http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120327/OTT-lunch-lady-salmonella-employee-fired-120327/20120327/?hub=OttawaHome 1.      What is the link to Crisis Management? Just like Maple Leaf, and many other outbreaks the link to crisis management is the level of cleanliness that we attain in North America with high food standards. The Lunch Lady Group (LLG) seems to be in a crisis being found to cater food salmonella infected.  At least 50 people have been reported having contracted salmonella, which is quite a serious illness to acquire.  2.      What stage of Crisis Management does the system appear to be at? This seems to be in the stage of risk. No individual have died, such as the case of Maple Leaf, and therefore the impact of the outbreak is not as great as could have been. At the same time it cannot be classified as an issue since it is an actual outbreak of bacteria and can infect people thus decreasing health status. 3.      How well does the system appear to be handling the situation?  The system does not appear to handle the situation as best it can. Although the company LLG has stated that the employee has been fired for their mishandling of raw meat, they have not addressed in specific what part of the procedure went wrong. They also do not inform the public of what the company is doing to prevent future outbreaks similar to this one. LLG has to show transparency to the public and their internal staff so everyone is made aware of how this outbreak occurred and how it can be avoided.  4.      What level of crisis preparedness does the system appear to have? There is not much information to illustrate the preparedness that LLG has. But it must be stated that at least the company could track the error and narrow it down to 1 employee. This illustrates some level of preparedness.  5.      What personal reactions/feelings does the description trigger in you? This story triggers worry for me about how many other cases could be similar to this. It seems quite easy to mishandle food product and have some bacterial outbreak. I would like to know what measures food distributors are taking to ensure that food safety is at the highest priority of these companies.  6.      What advice would you offer to those involved? To deal with this situation I would advise LLG to inform the public and its own staff on what exactly/how the food was mishandled leading to the outbreak of Salmonella. Also exemplify how it can be avoided.