The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed at least 10 cases of salmonella this week after first receiving reports of food poisoning from patrons of a popular Mexican restaurant.
Madre Oaxacan Restaurant and Mezcaleria, located at 27007 Mc Bean Parkway in Valencia, was shut down Tuesday “due [to] imminent health hazard for disease transmission,” officials said in a statement to NTD News.
They said the department’s Environmental Health Division had received several reports Tuesday of people experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms after eating at the restaurant, which led to their decision.
The owner of the restaurant did not return NTD’s request for comment.
Salmonella is a disease that can be spread after eating or drinking contaminated foods or encountering people infected with the disease, according to the health department. Foods most likely to be infected include those from animals, such as beef, eggs, poultry, or raw milk.
While symptoms of the disease are usually mild in most people, they can be more serious in children, the elderly, or people with health problems. Typical symptoms include body aches, fever, abdominal pain, headache, nausea, and Diarrhea, officials said.
To prevent the spread of salmonella, health officials recommended the following:
- Wash your hands after you use the bathroom or change a diaper.
- Wash all fruits and vegetables before eating them.
- Wrap fresh meats, poultry, and seafood in plastic bags at the market to prevent their liquids from dripping on other foods.
- Use a meat thermometer to check the inside temperature of meats to make sure they are fully cooked.
- Immediately wash cutting boards and counters used to prepare raw foods to avoid spreading the germs to other foods.
- Avoid eating raw eggs and foods that contains uncooked eggs (i.e. cookie dough, homemade ice cream, tiramisu, eggnog).
- If you have salmonella, don’t prepare food for others until your diarrhea has stopped.
In July, the California Department of Public Health released records showing that dozens of salmonella cases were linked to raw milk from a Fresno-based farm called Raw Farm, with at least 165 people developing the illness.
The outbreak reportedly lasted from October 2023 through February.
Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee said the outbreak was due to a single cow that was infected with salmonella last fall and later removed from the herd. Testing protocols have been put in place since then.
In June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was investigating a multistate outbreak of the disease linked to cucumbers.
The outbreak originated from Florida-based Bedner Growers, Inc., a cucumber supplier identified in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the source of the spread. In August, the FDA also found Thomas Produce Company of Boca Raton, Florida, as another supplier responsible for the infections, according to a CDC update.