Abstract
Introduction: Food poisoning is one of the major public health problems worldwide. Salmonella and S. aureus are primarily responsible for food poisoning. The current study focuses on a food poisoning outbreak in Alyotmah Village, Saudi Arabia, in 2017, which was due to eating from the Farooj Madinati Restaurant.
Objectives: To assess the extent of the food poisoning outbreak and identify its source along with providing recommended measures to prevent future outbreaks.
Design: Epidemiological study was carried out among the affected individuals, who were interviewed with questionnaire made by the Food Safety Department of the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia. This was followed by the environmental survey and field inspection of the restaurant. Laboratory samples were collected including food and restaurant food preparation tools, in addition to biological samples of the four food handlers and stool samples of 11 patients.
Results: Epidemiological study on 69 individuals showed that they developed predominant symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fever in less than 6 hours of incubation period. Salmonella and S. aureus were found to be present in most of the laboratory samples.
Conclusion: The study identified that the food handlers were the asymptomatic carriers of the organisms, resulting in the contamination of the tools used in the preparation of food. Maintaining proper hygiene within the restaurant, along with increasing the hygiene awareness of the food handlers can go a long way in reducing such outbreaks in future.