After six months of dwindling business, and with catering orders off by nearly half, Iwans Deli and Catering temporarily closed Monday, the same day the federal Centers for Disease Control reported that poor sanitation and refrigeration probably fueled the major E. coli outbreak linked to the Orland Park restaurant in June.
Owner Mitch Iwan decided to shut his 14-year-old business to “take stock of the emotional, physical and financial stress” of the outbreak, said his attorney, Joseph Horwitz.
Iwan and his wife “want to take a step back before deciding what to do next,” Horwitz said.
Also Monday, Orland Park officials said the county Health Department is investigating reports that 10 patrons complained they got sick after eating potato wedges at the restaurant last month. County officials could not be reached late Monday.
Iwan’s decision to close down coincided with a long-awaited 16-page CDC report that paints an unflattering picture of an overloaded catering operation that sickened an estimated 5,600 of the estimated 25,000 people who ate at Iwans-catered parties during the June 6-7 weekend.
After a two-month investigation by federal and local health officials, Iwans stepped up its sanitation practices and reopened to a crowd of loyal customers in August.
The CDC report also confirms speculation that potato salad was the most likely source of contamination, with other food items possibly becoming contaminated when they came into contact with the salad.
Although the CDC stresses it cannot say for sure the deli became contaminated in the first place, the report details three possible ways food could have infected people with ETEC, a rare form of E. coli that causes traveler’s diarrhea:
– Plumbing: Ingredients may have become contaminated in the deli kitchen because the three-compartment sink in the main kitchen “was not draining appropriately,” according to the report by Dr. Penny Adcock of the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of CDC.
Waste water could have backed up into a sink compartment and contaminated food or utensils, and a grease pit into which waste water flowed “was not large enough to accommodate the drainage from even a single sink,” the report said.
– Food-handling practices: An employee infected with ETEC may have contaminated the food, according to the report. Although food handlers reported using gloves and changing them 10 times a day, a June 9 Orland Park health inspection noted that employees were mixing salads and preparing fruit trays without gloves and that there were no paper towels or soap at the handwashing sink in the main kitchen.
– Outside source: An ingredient used in Iwans food, such as celery, may have been contaminated before it reached the deli, the report said. The researchers note that Iwans received less than 3 percent of a celery batch sent by a distributor and that no other illnesses were reported by other users of the same batch.
According to the report, food-handling practices at Iwans that weekend were different from usual–and possibly set the stage for contamination. Researchers note that the amount of food prepared was exceptionally large. An estimated 6,240 pounds of potato salad were made in 78 batches.
On June 3, workers were rinsing potatoes for potato salad in the three-compartment sink rather than another kitchen sink because a dishwasher was being installed. Less counter space near the sink meant that a grinder could not be used so ingredients had to be pressed by hand.
Also, a refrigeration truck with no internal thermometer was pressed into service to handle the order overflow, the report said.
Precut celery and onions were used that weekend, although the deli had not used precut vegetables since December 1997, according to the report.
If customers ordered more than one salad, the salads were sometimes placed in a single container with a divider, allowing possible cross-contamination, the report said.
Cook County Health Department spokeswoman Kitty Loewy said that since the Iwans outbreak, restaurant owners have called to request more information about food sanitation.
“It’s safe to say that more care is being given to food preparation,” Loewy said.
As Iwan decides his business’ future, he also faces a lawsuit filed against his deli.
