Chicken source of outbreak at Food Safety Summit
Maryland health officials said 216 people were sickened at the event in April at the Baltimore Convention Center.
Approximately 1300 people attended, exhibited at, or spoke at the conference from 42 states, Canada, Mauritius, and Costa Rica.
After the exhibition and conference, city officials fielded four phone calls from attendees reporting various symptoms of foodborne illness.
The attendees which included our reporter who did not fall sick, suspected that lunch served on April 9 was the source of the illnesses.
Centerplate was the food contractor involved at the convention center.
DHMH online survey
The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) reached out to attendees with an online survey to determine if there were others stricken by gastroenteritis.
“While we did not conclusively identify exactly what happened during this outbreak, we did identify numerous opportunities for improvement to reduce the risk of illness for future events and to ensure a more timely response in the event future outbreaks occur.”
An outbreak‐associated case was defined as diarrhea or vomiting in a person who attended the conference, with an onset up to 72 hours after the conference.
Of the 216 cases, 99 (45.8%) were female and 117 (54.2%) were male, ages ranged from 22 to 79 years with a median of 43 years.
Five visited a healthcare provider but none were hospitalized or died. Onsets ranged from April 8 at 12pm to April 12 at 10:30am, with a median onset at 12am on April 10.
Commonly eaten food
The pan seared breast of chicken Marsala was the food item most commonly consumed, with 146 of all 216 (67.6%) cases consuming it and 146 of the 157 (93%) cases who ate lunch on April 9 eating it.
Eight of the survey respondents reported that hot food served during the convention did not seem hot enough and/or that cold food did not seem cold enough.
Two said that the chicken appeared undercooked and two said that the cheeseburger sliders appeared undercooked.
A statement from the Food Safety Summit said it will be conducting further report analysis and taking the necessary steps to insure that an outbreak of this nature does not happen again.
“When we learned that attendees to the Food Safety Summit were ill after attending the 2014 event we fully cooperated with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene regarding this matter and assisted them with their investigation as requested.
“We have continued to do so in the past six months while the investigation was conducted and the final report was being prepared.”
The Marsala sauce was prepared the morning of April 9 and used only for that lunch.
Precooked frozen chicken breasts were used for the chicken Marsala. The chicken breasts were placed on sheet pans and thawed in a walk in cooler on April 8. They were cooked the morning of April 9 and transferred to 2‐inch pans after cooking.
The sauce was prepared using wine, pre‐sliced fresh mushrooms, 16 lb. buckets of frozen demi‐glace that had been placed in a walk‐in cooler 24 hours prior to thaw, and peeled fresh garlic from 5 lb. jars that was chopped in the kitchen prior to use.
DHMH said because no food from the buffet lines was available for testing, the concentration of bacteria in the food consumed by the cases cannot be determined.
“Our epidemiologic findings suggest that a single exposure and agent accounted for the majority of the cases associated with this outbreak. The vehicle for infection appears to have been the chicken Marsala dish served at the April 9 lunch.
“Chicken Marsala could be a suitable medium for C. perfringens and B.cereus, and under certain conditions, growth sufficient to cause illness could occur relatively quickly.
“Meat, poultry, and gravy are foods commonly associated with C. perfringens outbreaks, and chicken Marsala (chicken breasts served with gravy) has been implicated in previous outbreaks.”
