Restaurant mass salmonella outbreak goes to criminal trial
A court is now hearing evidence over a mass salmonella outbreak at a Canberra restaurant that poisoned more than 160 people.
The restaurant was the Copa Brazilian in Dickson and experts have told the court it was the quickest incubation period they had ever seen.
The bacteria was contained in the potato salad with raw egg aioli, served up as part of an all-you-can-eat deal.
The court was told that 161 customers consumed it and an ACT Health investigation traced the raw eggs to a Victorian supplier.
The restaurant was eventually closed.
However, Copa's owners, Zeffirelli Pizza Restaurant Pty Ltd, still face criminal charges over selling unsafe food. They have pleaded not guilty and have put up a defence saying they believed the food was safe to eat.
Defence lawyer Tim Sharman told the court the owners held the reasonable belief the eggs were safe as they came from a primary industry and the chain of suppliers was regulated.
The café owners, therefore, were entitled to rely on that regulation, he said.
According to Mr Sharman, the possibility of a "bad egg" was simply beyond the owners' control and that a crack in the shell allowing the salmonella to develop was invisible to the eye.
Adding to that, he said, was the fact that the ACT, unlike other jurisdictions, had no guidelines or rules governing how to handle raw egg products.
Radomir Krsteski, manager of the microbiology unit at ACT Health, told the court that a "bad egg" with a hairline crack kept in conditions conducive to bacteria, could become contaminated with salmonella without someone's knowledge.
Cameron Moffat, an epidemiologist who at the time was with the ACT Health Service, said these sorts of outbreaks could occur anywhere. He told the court there were high-end restaurants in Canberra that had experienced a similar issue.
But prosecutor Michael Reardon told the court that the restaurant was a business and the restaurateurs had to be aware of the risk.
In any case, he said, they could control the risk by using pasteurised egg products,
Magistrate Glenn Theakston is set to give his judgment at a later date.
by Leon Gettler, August 5th 2016
