Salmonella outbreak associated with CrackleMi Café in Seattle

Highlights, updated September 25, 2023

Summary

Public Health investigated an outbreak of salmonellosis (caused by Salmonella bacteria) associated with CrackleMi Café in Seattle. All three people who were interviewed reported eating a different type of banh mi sandwich (e.g., pork, chicken, and egg banh mi).

Illnesses

Since August 21, 2023, three people from three separate households reported becoming sick. The people who became sick ranged in age from 23 to 38 years old. All three people developed one or more symptoms consistent with salmonellosis, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, bloody stool, and fever. We did not identify any ill employees.

Public Health actions

Public Health conducted interviews with the people who became sick to identify potential common exposures and identified that they all became ill after eating a banh mi sandwich from CrackleMi Café in Seattle.

Environmental Health Investigators visited the restaurant on September 19 and 20, 2023. Investigators reviewed the restaurant’s food preparation process that could result in cross contamination between different types of meats or other ingredients. They documented factors that may have contributed to the outbreak such as risk of cross-contamination, improper handwashing, and improper glove use. The facility voluntarily closed on September 20, 2023, to clean and disinfect. On September 22, Environmental Health Investigators revisited the facility to verify proper compliance with cleaning and disinfection. The restaurant reopened the same day.

Laboratory testing

All three cases had confirmatory testing indicating infections with Salmonella via culture. Further testing indicated all three cases had the same strain of Salmonella, based on genetic fingerprinting (whole genome sequencing or WGS) at the Washington State Public Health Laboratory.