A group of 46 adults ended up at the hospital after eating a noodle dish prepared by an employee of a Maryland facility. Fortunately, officials said that their illness was non-critical. Here’s how it happened.
According to the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, firefighters and paramedics responded to a facility on the 7700 block of Chesapeake Bay Court in Jessup, Md., at around 3:45 p.m. Monday. WBAL reported that the location was the NAFCO Wholesale Seafood Distributors facility.
First responders headed to the area due to reports of multiple patients with food poisoning from eating the same food. Those patients were transported to multiple area hospitals where they were evaluated and mutual aid was provided by Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties.
Food consumed by the patients did not come from NAFCO, said the Howard County Health Department. It said a preliminary investigation indicated that the “outside” food was prepared by an employee and shared with others at the facility. WBAL said patients became ill about an hour after having the food, which it described as a noodle dish.
The health department “is not aware of any risk of further illnesses connected to this incident at this time,” it said in a Wednesday X post. In another post, the Howard county department said it was working with the Maryland Department of Health and other partners to investigate the cause of the incident. Per WBAL, the state health department believes the poisoning was unintentional and isolated to the incident at NAFCO.
“If we can get samples of the food itself and test it in our laboratory, and then we will also look at specimens from individuals who have sought medical care to identify the causal agent or agents,” said Dr. Clifford Mitchell with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to WBAL.
Mitchell explained that food poisoning incidents such as this one can be caused by “a combination of a bacteria or a virus combined with some viruses,” and that some “pathogens also produce chemicals, toxins, that will cause a faster reaction.”
While these incidents might be unintentional, they are avoidable, Mitchell added.
“Most of these involve people who are legitimately not trying to cause other people to become sick, just not following good safety rules. We emphasize the importance of making sure foods that are supposed to be hot stay hot, and foods that are supposed to be cold stay cold,” he said.
WBAL also reported that NAFCO parent company Stanley Pearlman Enterprises put out a statement Tuesday about the incident.
“NAFCO operates under the highest health and safety standards in the industry. Our headquarters and facilities are regularly inspected and monitored by the relevant health authorities to ensure compliance with all health and safety regulations,” said the company.