TRUMBULL COUNTY Health board suspends license of G's Golden Gate Restaurant

The virus is caused by ingesting food or water contaminated by fecal matter.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The food service license for G's Golden Gate Restaurant, Catering and Banquet Facility is suspended and all employees must complete an accredited food safety course before the restaurant can reopen.
After a wedding reception last month at St. Demetrios Church, catered by G's Golden Gate, about 250 people reported becoming ill. The city health board voted to suspend the Parkman Road Northwest facility's license pending the outcome of an investigation by the health department.
Mark Roberts, health department food programs coordinator, said at a health board meeting Wednesday that the investigation, which included interviewing 51 people, 41 who got sick and 10 who did not, taking stool samples, inspecting the facility and collecting data, pointed to Norwalk virus as the likely culprit.
Labs at the Ohio Department of Health and the Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) Health Department performed testing on the stool samples.
Norwalk virus is an intestinal virus. People get infected by swallowing stool-contaminated food or water, according to a Directors of Health Promotion and Education Web site.
What witnesses said
According to statements from three people who were interviewed, employees weren't wearing gloves during the reception. Another witness said that an employee working that day complained of being ill but said he couldn't go home.
Roberts said the health department asked the restaurant to provide a list of names of those people who worked at the reception, but it wasn't provided.
Owner Michael Gianoutsos had pointed to the food brought into the reception by family and friends of the wedding party as possibly to blame. Roberts said, however, Norwalk virus is present on ready-to-eat food, or food that doesn't require cooking. He listed rolls, salad contents and ice as examples.
The food brought from the outside was prepared, frozen and reheated by Golden Gate employees. The virus couldn't have survived under those conditions, Roberts said.
Health board members voted to continue the facility's suspension and required all current and future Golden Gate employees to complete an accredited food safety course before the suspension may be lifted. The vote was based on Roberts' recommendation.
Atty. Joseph Ohlin, who represents the facility, said the owners have tried to fully cooperate with the health department during the investigation and will be happy to comply with the requirements.
He said the restaurant offered the salad to be tested by health department personnel and that employees working that day went through two boxes of gloves.