The owners of a kebab shop in Wales gave more than 50 of their customers food poisoning, with 11 of them being hospitalised, after serving contaminated food.
The outbreak happened in February 2023 when customers ate food contaminated with shigella bacteria at Abergavenny’s Marmaris Kebab House in Wales.
Shigella bacteria is extremely contagious and is spread when a person swallows a small amount of it from the stool of someone who is infected.
For example, someone may contract shigella if they eat food prepared by someone who has it and didn’t wash their hands.
The main symptom of infection is diarrhoea, often containing blood, but many also experience a fever and stomach pain. Although shigella is not life threatening, people are often hospitalised with it and symptoms last for five to seven days.
The outbreak happened in February 2023 when customers ate food contaminated with shigella bacteria at Abergavenny’s Marmaris Kebab House in Wales
The takeaway’s director, Sami Abdullah, 46, pictured smoking a cigarette outside court
Hassan Saritag, 38, pictured outside Newport Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday
Sami Abdullah, the takeaway’s director, and his associate Hassan Saritag appeared at Newport Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and both pleaded guilty to placing unsafe food on the market, failing to put in place food safety procedures, and failing to register new owners at the business.
A Monmouthshire council spokesman said that a wide-ranging investigation by council officers was able to ‘positively link’ the infections to Marmaris after expert advice from Public Health Wales.
At the time of the outbreak Public Health Wales said it was aware of an increase in cases of gastrointestinal illness in Abergavenny believed to be caused by the shigella infection.
Shortly after the outbreak, one person told WalesOnline their family and friends had been through ‘horrendous sickness’ after contracting shigella following a visit to the takeaway on Friday, February 10 last year.
They said: ‘My relatives became incredibly sick on the following Sunday and Monday with symptoms persisting through to the mid-week for one and late week for the other.
‘Symptoms included some vomiting, fevers, terrible stomach cramps and blood in their diarrhoea.’
The council spokesman said: ‘Further offences for failing to register new owners at the business and failing to maintain a suitable food safety management system also resulted in guilty pleas. The business is now under new ownership.’
Saritag, 38, of Cross Street in Abergavenny, and Abdullah, 46, of Richmond Road in Cwmbran, were told off by District Judge Sophie Toms for speaking in the dock during their court appearance, but it then emerged that Saritag had been translating so his fellow defendant could understand what was being said in court.
The case was adjourned to September and a note was made for a Kurdish interpreter to be booked.