Three more diners sick from eating tuna at Sydney cafe: claim

Three more people say they have suffered food poisoning after eating tuna sold at a Sydney CBD cafe.

This brings the number of suspected cases of scombroid fish poisoning to seven, NSW Health said on Friday.

All had ordered tuna salad from the Soul Origin cafe near Town Hall station.

The first four customers became ill after eating tuna salad bought from the cafe on Monday.

They showed symptoms of scombroid poisoning, including skin rashes, dizziness, tingling in the mouth and nausea.

The NSW Food Authority recalled John Bull Tuna Chunky Style in Sunflower Oil following an investigation of the cafe. The Food Authority confirmed on Friday it was still conducting its investigations. 

The tuna, which is imported from Thailand by a Victorian company, is mostly used as a catering product and is not generally available to the public.

The cafe, which insists it meets the highest hygiene standards, says it has changed its brand of tuna since the customers fell ill.

The NSW Food Authority says the cafe has stopped serving tinned tuna.

The Food Authority says the incorrect temperature at the storing or processing stage when the tuna were caught could have caused the fish to become toxic.

"Scombroid poisoning has a rapid onset period of between a few minutes and a few hours, after consumption of contaminated fish," said Dr Jeremy McAnulty, NSW Health, Director of Health Protection.

Victims typically recover after a few hours.

Scombroid was linked to the death last year of Queensland mother and daughter Noelene and Yvana Bischoff, just hours after they ate contaminated fish at a restaurant in Bali.

The Sydney cafe episode follows a hepatitis A scare involving frozen berries imported from China.

Twenty-one people have so far been diagnosed with hepatitis A linked to the berries, a week after a nationwide recall was issued for a range of products.

AUSVEG chief executive Richard Mulcahy said more tuna products sold in Australia should be sourced locally.

"We've got a big tuna industry in South Australia," he told Fairfax Radio.

"Possibly some of these manufacturers who haven't been very supportive of what we're doing are just looking at the bottom line and saying 'Well, we can buy it from Asia. It's cheaper.' "

A Soul Origin spokesperson said the company had received a lot of support from its customers through social media. 

"It is too early to tell if the incident has had an impact on the business. Those sorts of numbers will be available next week," the spokesperson said. 

Source : Sydney Morning Herald   Sui-Lin Tan   February 27th 2015