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The story
At the “Azabu-Juban Suzumi (Summer Cooling) Festival” in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, 76 visitors reported vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms consistent with food poisoning, and the Minato Public Health Center is investigating the cause. Many of those affected are believed to have eaten “chilled crab ramen” from a food stall. On 5channel threads, users traded all kinds of speculation about the dish’s ingredients and hygiene practices, with some drawing comparisons to a past nagashi-somen (flowing-noodle) food poisoning incident that sickened roughly 900 people. Some guessed the cause was ramen prepared the day before and left sitting, but the exact cause will have to wait for the health center’s findings.
“Azabu-Juban Suzumi Matsuri”: 76 Report Illness, Symptoms Consistent With Food Poisoning — Many Affected Believed to Have Eaten Chilled Crab Ramen; Minato Public Health Center Investigating
Delivered 8/28 (Fri) 13:59
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Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
ID:WmH2AQXq0
No question about it, this guy's blood type is A (in Japan, Type A is stereotyped as fussy and neurotic)
…is just regular hiyashi chuka (cold ramen) with a rotten can of crab dumped on top.
Canned crab actually going bad is a pretty rare thing to happen.
Way too many victims for this one
Feels like they blew through a bunch of expired ingredients all at once at the festival.
chilled crab ramen actually does sound pretty tasty.
Ramen broth tends to overpower the toppings unless you're really careful with it, so I'd think cold bukkake udon with crab on top would work better.
Even if they do, it's meaningless without common sense to go with it.
Sounds like they got flamed before for advertising 'the goodness of Japanese crab' while actually using Chinese crab…
Unless they've genuinely cleaned up their act, I wouldn't count on much common sense from them.
Isn't it just that you couldn't keep food cold before refrigerators existed?
Japan managed to pull off cold noodle dishes at least, using well water.
Re: #86
Couldn't they just slap a 'not recommended for anyone with the five major allergens' notice on stuff like that?
Japan just has more cold food and drink in general compared to other countries.
Even iced coffee originated in Japan.
Guessing it was like 'I just came up with this incredibly original menu nobody's ever tried before!'
and ran with it.
Take Yoshinoya, for example — some of their items contain crab-derived ingredients, and since everything's made in the same factory, they specifically go out of their way to warn on their website that people with crab allergies should be careful.
since everyone ate it without noticing anything wrong.
The bacteria behind food poisoning, or the toxins they produce, don't necessarily have a distinctive taste or smell.
From experience, oysters are the only one I've ever actually been able to tell were bad.
My stomach and my backside still remember it.
real crab is way too risky, isn't it (´･ω･`)
Tempura made with kanikama is so good.
hahahaha
I was picturing hiyashi chuka with a bit of kanikama on top.
Might come down to the additives
Even the rice in packaged deli food seems to be loaded with the stuff these days
Good kamaboko made without additives doesn't keep long
though honestly, load anything up with enough sugar and it'll keep.
there was no heating step involved at all.
Though the actual cause seems to have been that it was made the day before and left over.
Didn't know ramen like that even existed.
I don't trust puddings that are just set with gelatin and never heated, either.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Festival food stalls are often temporary setups running under a public health center permit, and because they have to serve large volumes of food with limited cooking equipment, they tend to carry higher risks around temperature control and advance food prep than regular restaurants. On the thread, users floated theories like “maybe it was made the day before” or “maybe the canned crab had gone bad,” but as of this article, the Minato Public Health Center has not announced a specific cause or route of contamination — none of this is confirmed. There were also claims that the stall’s operator had been involved in an unrelated controversy in the past, but no connection to this food poisoning incident has been shown, so it’s worth being careful not to conflate the two. The actual cause will have to wait for the health center’s investigation results.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Express+) thread ““Azabu-Juban Suzumi Matsuri”: 76 Report Illness, Symptoms Consistent With Food Poisoning — Many Affected Believed to Have Eaten Chilled Crab Ramen; Minato Public Health Center Investigating.”
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