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It was a Cuban sandwich, experts who investigated the incident believe. In fact, it was probably the pulled pork inside, said Jeremy Ayers, section chief of the food safety and sanitation program in the environmental health division.
When investigating an outbreak, epidemiologists look at people’s symptoms and when they started. They are starting to get a feel for which dish was the likely culprit. In this case, there were many signs pointing to the Cubano, Ayers said.
“[The] the statistics they provided were pretty convincing that this sandwich was the food in question, ”Ayers said.
Experts have determined that Homer’s incident likely involved a pathogen associated with cooked meat and poultry called Clostridium perfringens.
It’s a common cause behind many foodborne illnesses nationwide, Ayers said. If the meat is poorly cooled – either too slowly or the food is not cold enough – the bacteria’s spore can grow and proliferate through the food.
When a person consumes the bacteria, it then produces toxins in the human body.
The department is still waiting for the Centers for Disease Control to fully confirm the bacteria was the culprit, he said.
A total of 80 South Peninsula Hospital employees reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness after eating food brought in for meals by local facility employees.
It is quite rare for Alaska to see an outbreak of this magnitude when it is not associated with some kind of national outbreak of foodborne illness, Ayers said.
The sandwich was not sold to the general public, and Ayers said the agency is no longer concerned about risks to the public in the future.
Only hospital staff to the food and no patient consumed it, health officials said.
Almost all of the symptoms were gone within 24 hours, health officials wrote. No one who ate the food should have been hospitalized, health officials said.
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