Canned sardines served in a Bordeaux wine bar in early September caused around ten cases of botulism, including one fatality.
A number of cases “exceptional”. Twelve people contracted botulism after eating jarred sardines in early September. One of these people, a 32-year-old woman, died in the Paris region, others are hospitalized in Bordeaux, Île-de-France or Barcelona. “Twelve cases linked to a single poisoning, this represents the number of annual cases in France as a general rule for this disease”underlined Benjamin Clouzeau, resuscitation doctor at Bordeaux University Hospital.
>> What is botulism, this disease which caused the death of a person after a meal of canned sardines in Bordeaux?
All these people frequented the same bar-restaurant in Bordeaux between Monday September 4 and Sunday September 10, indicated the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine during a press conference Wednesday September 13. The foods in question are “canned sardines made at home by the restaurateur”. The restaurant manager told the newspaper South Westthat he had “a batch of sterilized sardines and when I opened it, I had to throw away some which had a strong odor. Others appeared healthy and were served to customers.”
Mandatory training and strict rules to follow
“Hygiene is a very important point when you are a restaurateur”, recalls Frank Delveau, president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (Umih) of Paris-Ile de France. And everything comes first in monitoring HACCP for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. This method was born in the 1960s in the United States with NASA, which wanted to ensure food safety for astronauts. The method makes it possible to prevent and identify dangers likely to arise in food hygiene practices, explains the Service-public.fr website. “HACCP will somewhat determine all the rules in catering, including in terms of staff hygiene”, summarizes Frank Delveau. This training is compulsory and concerns every professional in the food sector, from traditional catering to fast food, including bars offering catering.
In this method, there is an obligation of self-control, explains the president of Umih Paris-Ile-de-France: “Each restaurateur must, for example, check the temperatures in the cold rooms every morning.” A requirement that we find in the hygiene rules to be followed in catering which concerns in particular waste management, drinking water supply, storage and preservation of food. On this last point, respect for the hot and cold chain is particularly scrutinized. Storage between 0° and 3°C must never be broken. Please note that raw materials and processed products must be stored in different refrigerators. In terms of cooking, for example, food must quickly reach 63°C and be kept stable during cooking.
If a first health inspection visit must take place after the opening of the establishment, it can be inspected at any time by the French administration, in particular through the repression of fraud. This check may be unannounced or because there has been a customer complaint or food poisoning. Failure to comply with hygiene rules will be punished with a warning if it is a minor infraction, but may go as far as closing the establishment in the event of endangering the health of the employees. consumers.
“A real fault in the canning process”
The controls are not “every day or every week but you are regularly”, indicates Frank Delveau. The restaurateur points out that “the law has changed recently, once you are checked today, you are required to put a sticker on your front showing that you have been checked and which indicates with smileys to see if you are in the red or in the green.”
A level of hygiene classified as “Very satisfactory”, “Satisfactory”, “To be improved” or “To be corrected urgently”, and which can be found on the internet. These are not the only controls put in place in the restaurant industry. “Many restaurateurs themselves sign contracts with laboratories who come once or twice a month to check the restaurant”indicates the president of the Umih of Paris-Ile de France.
The Bordeaux restaurateur made his own preserves, which is authorized by regulations. Nine jars were served with three to four sardines in each. Jars served on the table in a friendly way, which we share in the form of tapas. “The restaurateur himself confirmed that when the jars were opened, there was a bad smell and the absence of vacuum. The establishment was rather well run but there was on the other hand a real defect in the canning process “, explained Thierry Touzet, from the departmental population protection directorate. If canned sardines seem to be the only cause, the health services are also analyzing the other homemade jars in this bar-restaurant. Franck Delveau, who is waiting to see the conclusions of the investigation before issuing an opinion on this matter, recalls a measure of common sense: “When you have a doubt, you don’t play with the health of your customers. You throw everything away. For me, it’s obvious.”