The Sunnyvale Sun

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Mystery illness is investigated in Sunnyvale

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

Just as the nation is swept up in spinach panic, Sunnyvale had its own minor outbreak of food-borne illness, and a bit of a medical mystery followed.

After ingesting a tuna melt and coleslaw lunch at the Sunnyvale Senior Center on Sept. 8, five Sunnyvale residents reported becoming ill from what they thought might have been the lunch.

An unidentified resident said all five people were deathly ill after eating the lunch. The reports to the city of illness focused mainly on gastrointestinal distress. City health officials confirm five people got sick.

On Sept. 12, the complaint reached the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health and an inspection was completed on Sept. 13.

According to the inspection, no major violations were found.

The report did say that the contractor that prepares the food--Culinary Magic--needed to improve cleaning procedures, including more frequent cleaning of preparation surfaces and raising the temperature of the dishwasher 10 degrees to 180 degrees.

Supervising environmental health specialist Vicki Everly said none of the minor violations directly contribute to food-borne illnesses like those reported.

She also said most of the violations are common ones, found in most inspected facilities. She also said the complaint itself made it difficult to investigate because the man who called in could not remember when the symptoms started, which is crucial when trying to determine the source of an illness.

According to Sunnyvale communications officer John Pilger, 43 people were served that day by the lunch program, 34 of them ate the tuna-melt meal. Of those 34, only five reported feeling ill later.

While about 15 percent of the people who ate the meal got sick, all of them also ate cookies at a computer class that same day, according to the health report.