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The story
At a food stall during the “Azabu-Juban Nōryō Matsuri” (Azabu-Juban Summer Festival) in Tokyo, people who ate the “chilled crab ramen” sold there came down with food poisoning, prompting the stall owner to issue a public apology. Health department testing found more than just Salmonella in patients’ stool samples — Plesiomonas, diarrhea-causing E. coli, and Staphylococcus aureus also turned up — meaning the outbreak can’t be pinned on a single pathogen. The owner, who ran the festival stall, also had his own restaurant hit with a 7-day business suspension and will be closed for the time being. On 5channel, users traded technical theories about the contamination route based on the mix of bacteria found, alongside suspicions about cooking outdoors in blazing heat and how the crab itself had been handled.
Food Poisoning at the “Azabu-Juban Summer Festival” — Komeo Apologizes After Serving “Chilled Crab Ramen” at the Festival; His Own Shop to Close, Hit with 7-Day Business Suspension
Published 9/3 (Thu) 18:18
Oricon
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Maybe it was something spicy that masked it.
Unlike spoilage bacteria, Salmonella doesn't change a food's taste, smell, or texture even as it multiplies.
If it's E. coli that's really nasty…
though honestly anything else would be nasty too.
Komeo didn't do anything wrong here.
He's technically the owner-chef though lol
but at a level where he probably never even got a cooking license or food hygiene manager qualification.
What are you even talking about.
Even Susuru (the famous ramen-review YouTuber) treated him like an amateur too.
His name recognition has skyrocketed right now, so this was a business opportunity — if he'd served crab curry without another food poisoning incident, it would've been like atonement and actually boosted his reputation. Such a waste…
If the crab is the cause and it came from the same supplier, they can't use food from the same lot.
According to the organizers' announcement it was a "stall cancellation," not a "withdrawal," so it sounds like the organizers cut him, not that he backed out himself.
Well, he just needs to use this experience to make his next ramen venture a success.
He's gone viral and his name recognition has shot up, so there's a real chance he leaps forward from here. These days even infamy can be monetized.
Apparently the crab was fried, but if it was already spoiled before it hit the fryer…
Raw crab itself, blazing sun, outdoor cooking, and an unheated cold noodle dish — quite the combo.
Starting next year they should rebrand it as the "Azabu-Juban Exciting Summer Festival" and start over.
I kind of like "Azabu-Juban 'Oops We Did It With Crab Last Year' Summer Festival" too. (a pun riffing on the festival's official name)
They should make it a memorial festival for Taira no Masakado instead. (a 10th-century warrior whose vengeful spirit is still ritually appeased in Tokyo)
Looking at the sample data,
it's not just "Salmonella" 🤮
【Patient stool samples】
🔹Salmonella: 31 samples
🔹Plesiomonas: 9 samples
🔹Diarrheagenic E. coli: 2 samples
🔹Staphylococcus aureus: 1 sample
【Staff stool samples】
🔹Salmonella: 2 samples
🔹Plesiomonas: 1 sample
It's not as simple as "tons of patients tested positive for Salmonella, case closed" 🤔
What really stands out is that Plesiomonas showed up in BOTH patients and staff 🧚
These two bugs come from different hosts — roughly speaking:
🔹Salmonella → land animals
🔺Plesiomonas → freshwater organisms
So this was probably cooked somewhere where "contamination from animal feces" and "freshwater-derived contamination" happened at the same time 🤮
x.com/mrnetinfo/status/2095486517842186259
Given it's Salmonella plus Plesiomonas (which is unusual), you can tell the cause was imported brackish-water crab.
That said, Salmonella and diarrheagenic E. coli are both classic "unsanitary poop" bacteria, and Staph aureus usually comes from cuts or wounds on a worker's hands. Basically: unsanitary imported ingredients, stored unsanitarily, handled by unsanitary staff — way too many different bacteria involved here lol
That one isn't mentioned in Re: #142 though.
Wait, does Plesiomonas mean they were using freshwater crab?
Just think of Salmonella as a poop-derived bacteria.
It means it was made in an unsanitary environment — like not washing hands after the bathroom, or rats running around the kitchen.
Simply put: poop ramen.
Really?
So that means the bacteria weren't from the ingredients spoiling?
I see.
So it was poop after all.
No idea if that's actually true though.
They tested for norovirus and it all came back negative.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
A restaurant business suspension is an administrative penalty under Japan’s Food Sanitation Act, meant to halt operations until the causative agent and contamination route are identified. The focus here is that the bacteria found in patients’ stool wasn’t limited to a single species. Salmonella comes from land-animal feces, while Plesiomonas comes from freshwater environments — the two turning up together is an unusual combination that wouldn’t normally occur under standard food handling, which drew attention on the thread. There was also pushback against the assumption that “spoiled food should be obvious from its smell or taste,” with some pointing out that Salmonella itself doesn’t change a food’s flavor even as it multiplies — and that serving the dish cold, with no heating step, in blazing outdoor heat, was itself a risk factor. Note that posts making unverified personal attacks based on rumors about the owner’s background have been excluded from this article, since those claims couldn’t be confirmed. Pinning down the definitive cause and contamination route will require the results of the health department’s ongoing investigation, so readers should be cautious about treating the thread’s speculation as established fact.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5channel (Breaking News+) thread “Food Poisoning at the “Azabu-Juban Summer Festival” — Owner Apologizes After Serving “Chilled Crab Ramen” at the Festival; His Own Shop to Close, Hit with 7-Day Business Suspension.”
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