It took five days after my daughter got sick in Florida for her to be diagnosed with salmonellosis. (By that time she'd been flown back to Maryland and was hospitalized.) Then it took another day to reconstruct exactly what she ate during our week-long vacation, and where she ate it.
While we will never be sure of the meal that did it, several factors point to the chicken tenders Anna ate in a restaurant 10 hours before she made her first beeline to the bathroom.
For one, when we told her that she probably got sick from something she ate, she immediately said, "I know where." With no prompting, she told us that parts of the chicken tenders tasted cold and hard. For another, it seemed obvious that the busy restaurant had a doneness problem: My fish was dry and overcooked. When I called the restaurant to inquire further into the situation, the owner said he believed the tenders were purchased partially cooked and frozen. Perhaps, I suggested, the fry cook didn't fully cook them? If the tenders were contaminated with salmonella, undercooking them might not kill the bacteria.
The restaurant owner, who appeared to listen sympathetically, told me he would check with the kitchen staff and get back to me. He never did. Concerned about the possibility of further illnesses, I reported the restaurant to the Florida authorities -- the county department of business regulation, not the health department.
New Habits
It took three weeks and lots of follow-up calls to confirm that an inspector had been dispatched to the restaurant. By then, of course, none of the implicated food was available. But I was told that the inspector found no refrigeration or cooking temperature violations, no sick employees who could have transmitted the infection, and no other reported food-borne illnesses from the day we ate there.
"It's tough to catch these things," a state official told me.
I am happy to report that after missing two full weeks of school and spending several weeks on the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast), Anna is fully recovered. She isn't squeamish about eating at restaurants, but sometimes asks me to examine her food to make sure it's fully cooked. At home, she has the opposite concern, berating me for cooking her chicken and hamburgers to death. But Anna has definitely broadened her dining-out repertoire. Now she mostly orders grilled cheese. ·
Carole Sugarman, a former Washington Post food reporter, now covers the Agriculture Department for Food Chemical News.
