LOS ANGELES – A norovirus outbreak linked to oysters sickened at least 80 people who attended an event celebrating the Los Angeles Times’ annual list of the 101 best restaurants in the city, local health officials said this week.
Hundreds of guests attended the 101 Best Restaurants event at the Hollywood Palladium on the evening of Dec 3, where some of Southern California’s most acclaimed restaurants and bars served food and drinks from the city’s diverse culinary scene.
The Times used the event to unveil its annual guide to the 101 Best Restaurants, which it first published in 2013, when the list was chosen by the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, who died in 2018.
In a statement on Dec 19, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said that it was “investigating a norovirus outbreak associated with oysters that were served at an event on Dec 3, 2024.”
“At this time, over 80 attendees that consumed the oysters have reported illness, a majority with gastrointestinal symptoms that include diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting,” the department said.
It said that some people had been hospitalised but did not say how many.
Mr Mark Kapczynski, 54, who lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and runs a business consulting firm, said he attended the event with his wife after buying two VIP tickets for close to US$350 (S$476) each. General tickets cost US$159.
He said that about 30 to 45 minutes after he sampled some of the food – including two plates of raw oysters and clams – he went outside for a drink and began “feeling bloated.”
The next day, he said, as he was taking an Uber home after a work event, he started feeling seriously ill and could “barely keep it together and not throw up and pass out.”
“I could barely walk into my house and, the next thing I knew, I’m in the bathroom every 40 minutes for about eight times all night, obviously throwing up and so on,” he said. “It was the most painful cramps I could imagine.”
Mr Kapczynski, who also had chills, ended up missing several days of work, he said. His wife, who ate one oyster, also got sick, he said.
“It was a disaster,” he said. “These are the top restaurants in LA. You think you’re safe. Not what you expect.”
Mr Kapczynski also spoke about his experience with L.A. Taco, a local food-oriented news outlet, which reported on the outbreak.
Mr Javier Cabral, the editor-in-chief of L.A. Taco, also attended and got sick.
He said there had been a “very jovial vibe,” at the party, as chefs, writers and others from the city’s food scene mingled over small plates of wagyu beef, ceviche and tacos.
Two days later, he said, he felt seriously ill.
“Two little oysters brought me down in a way that made me honestly a little scared,” he said. “I vomited at least two dozen times.”
Ms Hillary Manning, a spokesperson for the LA Times, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dec 19.
She told L.A. Taco that the oysters served at the event “were sourced by Santa Monica Seafood, a sponsor and the seafood vendor of the event.”
The oysters were “provided to one of the featured restaurants to serve,” Ms Manning said.
She added that the Health Department had “inspected the restaurant’s storage and handling of the oysters, and the food safety protocols and standards at the event, and found that both the restaurant and the producers of the event met and exceeded all food safety requirements.”
Santa Monica Seafood said the oysters linked to the outbreak had been sourced by another seafood company, which voluntarily withdrew the product last week.
“There is no evidence to suggest mishandling at any point in the supply chain, including by Santa Monica Seafood or any of the restaurants participating in the LA Times event,” the company said.
The county Health Department said that the outbreak at the restaurant event was linked to a broader outbreak from oysters that have since been recalled.
The recall covered Fanny Bay Select oysters and Fanny Bay XS oysters from Pacific Northwest Shellfish Co, with a pack date of Nov 25 or later, the department said.
Mr Leigh Loader, the owner of Pacific Northwest Shellfish Co, based in Richmond, British Columbia, said the company had sent out recall notices and had stopped shipping oysters in the first week of December when it learned of issues with the product.
“We are very diligent – the whole industry here,” he said. He added: “Nothing will be reopened until the government here is more than happy that there is no chance of further illnesses.”
On Dec 16, the Food and Drug Administration advised restaurants and retailers not to serve or sell certain oysters and manila clams from Pickering Passage, in Washington state, warning that they were potentially contaminated with norovirus.
On Dec 18, the agency issued a similar advisory warning businesses not to sell or serve certain oysters from parts of British Columbia.
Norovirus, which is highly contagious, can come from untreated sewage that accumulates in filter feeders like oysters and clams.
Food containing norovirus may look, smell and taste normal. Cooking shellfish can kill the virus. But oysters are often served raw.
In the United States, norovirus illnesses from oysters are “relatively rare,” according to Dr Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food safety expert and professor emerita at North Carolina State University.
“That being said, aside from not eating raw molluscan shellfish, there is not much a consumer can do,” she said in an email.
She added: “We have regulations for licensing oyster growing waters for harvest, to try to keep contaminated product out of the market, but they are not perfect.” NYTIMES
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Blythe Schroeder
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