Chefs blamed for food poisoning outbreak at Eden Park

Chefs failing to read the labelling on boxes of Korean oysters have been blamed for hundreds of cases of food poisoning at a rugby test match at Auckland's Eden Park last month.

About 352 people developed norovirus resulting in nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, fever and chills, from eating the oysters, a report released by Auckland Regional Public Health Service today said.

The report said the caterers ran out of New Zealand-grown oysters and served the imported ones, which they believed were safe to eat raw.

Although labelling on the packaging indicated the oysters should be cooked, this was not heeded by the chefs preparing them.

The Eden Park Trust board today publicly apologised to patrons poisoned during the second test between the All Blacks and Ireland.

"The incident has been clearly identified as a product issue. Our caterers, Michael O'Brien Catering, purchased oysters for the event from a leading New Zealand food supplier.

"They have accepted responsibility for the incident and will be offering compensation to affected patrons," trust spokesman Murray Reade said.

New Zealand Food Safety Authority spokesman Gary Bowering said oyster imports from Korea have been put on hold until the authority was satisfied they were safe.

"We have asked the Government to suspend imports until we have confidence in the Korean Government's processes of certification. That is the standard international approach for incidents like this."

The report also revealed that subsequent to the Eden Park outbreak there were two further foodborne illness incidents implicating imported Korean oysters. One was in Porirua and involved three cases with confirmed norovirus infection and one was in Auckland where there was a case with symptoms consistent with norovirus infection.

The latter involved consuming oysters from the same batch as those implicated at Eden Park.

The report said that the two cases involved "carpet bag" steaks where the steak was stuffed or garnished with lightly cooked oysters.

"These outbreaks suggest that even with a cooking process, the risk of infection may still be significant and also that in the absence of a consumer level recall potentially preventable cases of norovirus gastroenteritis will continue to occur."

- NZPA