Grilled Eel Causes Mass Food Poisoning in Tokyo
One person died and nearly 150 others were sickened after eating grilled eel prepared by a restaurant chain and sold at a department store near Tokyo, officials said.
Among those sickened, two people required hospitalization.
Keikyu Department Store said 147 customers reported symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea after eating grilled eel dishes sold in the grocery section of the department store based in Yokohama, near Tokyo, between July 24 and July 25.
Japan has a tradition of eating roasted eel as a tonic for the heat during the hottest days of summer.
A woman in her 90s died after developing symptoms, but her exact cause of death is being further investigated, the Yokohama city health center said. Two other people were hospitalized, but the symptoms of others affected were milder, it added.
The health center said that the only food item eaten by all the sickened was the grilled eel, sold separately or as part of box lunches served with rice.
It was prepared by the Tokyo-based restaurant chain Nihonbashi Isesada, and sold at the department store. More than 1,700 servings of grilled eel were sold at the shop, Keikyu officials said.
The health center detected staphylococcus aureus — or staph — which causes vomiting and diarrhea, in samples from those affected.
Keikyu Department Store and Isesada have apologized for what happened. Soichiro Tomita, from Isesada, also acknowledged at a news conference that some cooks had not been wearing plastic gloves.
The health center said it has temporarily stopped operations at the Isesada shop on the grocery floor and its restaurant on another floor of the department store while they investigate the cause.
