City health department names restaurant tied to tainted tomatoes

By Mike Hughlett | Tribune reporter
3:51 PM CDT, June 18, 2008

A cluster of nine salmonella cases linked to tainted tomatoes occured at the Adobo Grill's two restaurants on Chicago's North Side, the Chicago Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

But it's still unclear whether that cluster is the same one that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is focusing on in its investigation of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 227 people nationwide since mid-April.

The outbreak has been widespread, affecting people who've frequented a variety of restaurants and who bought tomatoes at myriad grocery stores. Nine of the 17 cases reported in Chicago involved people who ate at the Adobo Grill's outlets in Old Town and Wicker Park.

Paul LoDuca, President of DaVinci Group, Ltd., the management company that operates the Adobo Grill restaurant at 2005 W. Division St., said Wednesday that the restaurant was the "unknowing victim" of tomatoes contaminated with salmonella.

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"When purchasing produce for use at the restaurant, there is no way to know whether it may harbor salmonella bacteria," he said in a statement.

The FDA still hasn't been able to track down the origin of the bug, though it believes Mexico or Florida are the most likely sources.

David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, said this week that nine cases in the same geographic location is the agency's best tip so far in its hunt for the bug's source. With a cluster of cases from one origin, the FDA hopes to track tainted tomatoes through the supply chain.

Acheson has declined to comment on the location of the cluster. Tim Hadac, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health, said his agency assumes the FDA is talking about Chicago in reference to the nine cases.

"It looks like they are talking about the same thing," he said.

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