Catered Office Party Is the Site of Staph Aureus Intoxication

Approximately 60 people became ill after attending an office party in Florida.  About 25 were taken to the hospital.  The catered event served turkey, ham, stuffing and green bean to some 700 people.   The caterer was identified as Kitchen Divas, which from the website, appears to be a legitimate operation.

The illness appears to be Staphylococcus aureus intoxication, and one would guess the level of toxin formed in the food would be pretty high because of the short duration from the time the product was eaten to the point when people become ill, and the fact they had to cart people to the hospital.

If this is the case, it would mean that one of the foods served was drastically temperature abused.

It sucks when staff parties turn into 'staph' parties.  We highlighted a similar event within the past month in North Carolina where more than a dozen postal workers become ill.  Makes you reconsider attending your company's holiday party, doesn't it?


WKMG Local 6 Orlando
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/orange-county-fire-rescue-investigating-report-of-sick-people-in-office-building/30164136
Dozens sickened at office holiday party in Maitland
Officials say 30 taken to hospital for apparent food poisoning
Author: Shaun Chaiyabhat, Reporter, schaiyabhat@clickorlando.com
Michelle Dendy, ClickOrlando.com Web Editor, mdendy@clickorlando.com
Published On: Dec 10 2014 04:48:18 PM EST Updated On: Dec 12 2014 06:41:14 AM EST 

MAITLAND, Fla. -

Authorities are investigating what caused nearly 60 people to fall ill at a large holiday party in a Maitland office building Wednesday afternoon.

Orange County Fire Rescue, Seminole County Fire Rescue and Winter Park Fire Department were called to the office building at 2301 Lucien Way roughly two hours after the building-wide catered luncheon.

OCFR said approximately 30 people were transported by ambulance and 200 people were assessed for apparent food poisoning. Fifty-five people were treated. The Maitland Colannades building houses more than 700 people, but not everyone attended the party.

The event was catered by Kitchen Divas, according to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Health officials said the catering company is working them to see if the illness came from the distributor, processing or preparation of food.

Officials haven't said if food served by the catering company was responsible for the illness. The inspection report was also released by officials, which showed five violations during its last inspection in October 2013. None of the violations were high priority, but a few were intermediate warnings for things like grease build-up and the sink not being accessible for employees to wash hands.

Officials are working with health department on a "trace back investigation," where they plan to examine samples from the food and from patients to determine what contaminated the food and caused the illness.

"Bottom line is what we want to do now is we want to make sure we can find out what caused this so we can make sure nobody else gets sick from this," said Dain Weister, Department of Health spokesman. "This could be something about somebody not washing their hands properly, it can be food not being stored at proper temperatures, it could be cross contamination meaning when you work with raw meat you don't want that to be near ready to eat food like salad and those sort of things."

Officials with the Maitland Fire Department said patients were treated for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea after the holiday luncheon. Some left and came back after getting sick at home and several were transported to the hospital.

Officials searched the building to make sure no one was too sick to call for help.

All patients were released from the hospital and had food poisoning symptoms, according to health officials. Epidemiologists are speaking with the patients to see what everyone ate and drank and taking fluid samples for testing.

Employees tell Local 6 they were served food like sliced turkey, ham, stuffing and green beans. They say all 700 employees who work for various companies in the building were invited to the luncheon.

One employee said there were two lines to get lunch and everyone who got sick went through the same line.

The Health Department issued holiday food safety tips, such as not eating anything that has been left out for two hours or longer and that the responsibility is in the server's hands.

Local 6 contacted Kitchen Divas, but received no response.