Cubano sandwiches with Clostridium perfringens found in Alaska investigation

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Alaska health officials have traced the source of a foodborne illness outbreak that sickened dozens of hospital workers in Homer to a single item

The Department of Health and Social Services said in a release Monday that it was Cubano sandwiches.  Experts who investigated the incident think. In fact, it was probably the pulled pork inside of it, said Jeremy Ayers, section manager with the Food Safety and Sanitation Program within the Division of Environmental Health.

When investigating an outbreak, epidemiologists look at people’s symptoms and when they began. They start to form an idea of what dish was the likely offender. In this case, a lot of signs pointed to the Cubano, Ayers said.

“[The] statistics that they came up with were pretty compelling that that sandwich was the implicated food item,” Ayers said.

Experts determined that the Homer incident likely involved a pathogen associated with cooked meat and poultry called Clostridium perfringens. Read full article….