Food Poisoning Law Blog

Pars Cove, a restaurant in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago, experienced a minor setback due to an outbreak of salmonellosis in hummus dishes served at last year’s Taste of Chicago.  The outbreak sickened 790 people, with 182 confirmed cases of salmonellosis and 30 hospitalizations.  Attorneys at our law firm are representing victims of this outbreak.  

Max Pars, owner of Pars Cove, had an interesting response to the outbreak. According to the Medill Reports of Northwestern University,

He didn’t lay off any of his six employees, he didn’t change prices, which average $13 per entrée, and he didn’t budge on his no-advertising policy. Well, Pars did make one change: he temporarily stopped serving hummus dishes. After a subsequent health inspection, the restaurant corrected six violations, which included a refrigerator not set at the proper temperature and evidence of rodents. As soon as the Health Department gave him the go-ahead, Pars resumed selling hummus dishes.

Business at the restaurant dropped by as much as 20% in the months following the outbreak, but then quickly rebounded. The Chicago Department of Public Health narrowed the source of contamination down to a sesame seed paste used in the hummus dish, but an exact cause may never be known.  Meanwhile, the restaurant remains open and producing hummus dishes as it has always done.

Pritzker | Ruohonen has been contacted regarding the Salmonella outbreak linked to the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth at Taste of Chicago.  The firm is investigating the outbreak and can be contacted toll-free at 1-888-377-8900.  As of noon today, a total of 529 people have reported that they became ill after they ate food purchased from the Pars Cove booth—up from the 491 reported Saturday.

Fifty of the 529 are laboratory-confirmed cases of salmonellosis, with more results pending—up from the 44 reported yesterday. Of the 50, 36 have been identified as Salmonella Heidelberg, one of the more common Salmonella serotypes in the United States. A total of 17 people are known to have been hospitalized—up from the 15 reported yesterday.

Most of the individuals live in the Chicago area; a few are from downstate and a few are from other states.

Nationally, there are about 40,000 cases of salmonellosis reported every year, although federal health officials say that the actual number of cases may be as much as 30 times higher—since most cases are mild and go unreported. In Chicago, there are about 300 reported cases each year.

CDPH sanitarians have visited the Pars Cove restaurant, 435 W. Diversey, to thoroughly inspect the premises. Additionally, CDPH has interviewed Pars Cove food handlers and administered stool tests for presence of the Salmonella bacterium. Epidemiological evidence suggests that the source of the outbreak is hummus served at the Pars Cove booth.

CDPH has submitted food samples to the Illinois Department of Public Health for laboratory analysis. Results are expected this week.