Death by Asparagus Sauce

Check this story of a man who died from eating fish that was served with a cream-based asparagus sauce that had been improperly handled by an award-winning restaurant:

Asparagus Sauce Killed Man: Coroner

According to the story, the sauce had been reheated and refrigerated several times over a 48-hour period, despite regulations requiring that it be dumped if it's been at room temperature for 2 hours. This allowed the very common bacterium bacillus cereus to grow unchecked. The level of toxin from the bacteria was 10 times the level that's toxic to humans.

This is the same bacteria that is sometimes found on rice and other foodstuffs. See this thread:

Rice as a Source of Food Poisoning

Yes, I know -- many of you have eaten food that was left on the counter for two weeks without getting sick. Indeed, only two other of the 14 persons who ate the sauce reported that they got sick, and only the one man, who was elderly, died. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean it can't happen.

Food safety is important, especially when it comes to your friends and family. When in doubt, throw it out!

Doug, I tend to agree with you because I have had food poisoning more than once and being a caregiver to two elderly parents and knowing how compromised their immune systems had become I felt even a small risk wasn't worth taking. Yes, food safety is important and I tend to be obsessive on the subject. I toss things most people would not. However, this is a choice that people must make for themselves.

Eww! Thanks for the link. I have a question about this part:

A NSW Food Authority investigation found presence of the toxic vegetable pathogen bacillus cereus at almost ten times the toxic level in the cream-based asparagus sauce that Mr Hodgins ate with his serving of snapper, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on March 27.
Pathogen levels of 1 million parts per 10 million parts in any food is toxic but tests on the asparagus sauce revealed 9.8 million parts per 10 million parts, the inquest heard.

Click to expand...

Does that mean that 98% of the sauce was bacteria? I guess I don't understand that measurement...

The story is not well written. Here's a better news article:

Fish-of-the-Day Sauce a Killer

According to this article, the investigator said "the sauce, when analysed, had 9.8 million colony-producing units of the bacterium bacillus cereus per gram."

The article also provides this information about the incident:Incidentally, the man did not die directly from the toxin; rather, it made him vomit so hard that he ruptured his stomach and apparently bled to death.

That makes more sense, thanks!

PieSusan said:

Doug, I tend to agree with you because I have had food poisoning more than once and being a caregiver to two elderly parents and knowing how compromised their immune systems had become I felt even a small risk wasn't worth taking. Yes, food safety is important and I tend to be obsessive on the subject. I toss things most people would not. However, this is a choice that people must make for themselves.

Click to expand...

I most definitely do NOT have a weak stomach or constitution, but nevertheless I've had food poisoning 3 or 4 times:

• When I was about 10 or 12, my mother and I both got violently ill from food served at a church picnic; we thought it was probably the canned ham that apparently was served without reheating.

• When I was in college, I ended up in the infirmary for 5 days with vomiting followed by severe diarrhea; not sure of the source, but probably one of the gross food stands we frequented; on the plus side, I lost 12 pounds.

• When I worked in downtown Los Angeles, I frequented a very popular place called Kosher Burrito (which was run by a Korean family -- how L.A. Is that?); they started making their pastrami-bean-cheese burritos early in the morning, wrapped them in foil, and stuck them in an ice chest to keep them warm (i.e., no ice); I had a report to finish and went to lunch that day about 2:30, and I apparently got the last one in the ice chest -- that is, the first one made that morning; man, was I sick, although it lasted only 48 hours.

I learned my lesson the hard way, and I've been careful with food safety ever since.

In his book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain has some good advice about things to avoid in restaurants. He writes this in the chapter titled "From Our Kitchen to Your Table":

In fine dining establishments (My ex was a chef and my best friend, a caterer), hollandaise would be created for each dish and not held. It was made and served immediately per order.