34 people report illness after eating from Kirkland food truck

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KIRKLAND, Wash. — A Kirkland restaurant has been shut down by Public Health — Seattle & King County officials after 34 people reported gastrointestinal illness symptoms after eating from the establishment's food truck at a private event.

Tacos El Guero was investigated on Monday by public health officials, after a group reported becoming sick the day after consuming food from the truck on Sept. 14.

Per public health, investigators found a number of potential risk factors for bacterial toxin growth in mobile food trucks and the restaurant. These risk factors included "inadequate refrigeration and improper cooling of food," as well as "inadequate equipment, improper reheating, and lack of managerial oversight."

"If you keep things at the wrong temperature, or you hold products, or you reheat products and it doesn't get cooled properly these toxins can grow. Once they grow enough they can make people really sick," says Bainbridge Island's Bill Marler, one of the nation's foremost legal experts on food poisoning cases.

Marler says while no one has died or been hospitalized in this incident if an elderly person or someone with a compromised immune system ate at the event, they could be in serious danger."Hopefully, these cases are just tummy aches and people will get better and it's just a bad experience, but the kinds of violations the health department found, with the wrong customer, these can be deadly," says Marler, who rose to prominence when he litigated the notorious Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in 1993.

King County also cited a lack of managerial oversight at the unpermitted truck. A previous health inspection of the restaurant found it "needs improvement."

The food truck also was not permitted when it was serving food at the private event, according to investigators.

The restaurant was closed by officials on Monday, and Environmental Health investigators will revisit the facility to "ensure adoption of safe food handling practices" before it can reopen.

The symptoms mentioned by public health that were reported by those who became sick included diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and nausea.For now, King County says it will revisit the restaurant to determine when and if it can reopen."Environmental Health shut them down. They will make sure they get permitted before they reopen. If they reopen they will make sure they're using good food safety practices," says Marler.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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