One Dead, 130 Sickened After Eating Tainted Eel Lunch Boxes; Customers Who Bought Meals from Keikyu Department Store Test Positive for Staph

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:38 JST, July 30, 2024

A woman in her 90s died and about 130 people suffered from symptoms indicating food poisoning, including diarrhea and nausea, after eating broiled eel and rice lunch boxes sold at the Keikyu department store in Yokohama last week.

The eel lunch boxes were made by Nihombashi Unagi Isesada, a broiled eel establishment in Tokyo, and sold at the store for the Midsummer Day of the Ox, when people traditionally eat broiled eel.

The City of Yokohama public health center determined the cause to be food poisoning on Monday after customers tested positive for staphylococcus bacteria. The center suspended Isesada’s operations.

According to the center, of the 982 people who ate eel lunch boxes sold by Isesada from July 24-25, 130 aged from under 10 to in their 90s, complained of symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea. They report that it is not clear whether the elderly woman’s death was related to the lunch box she ate. Most suffered only minor symptoms, but two were hospitalized.

Keikyu Department Store Co. President Shinji Kaneko apologized for the food poisoning at a press conference held with Isesada on Monday. Kaneko said that his company took the issue very seriously and would do their utmost to find out how it was allowed to happen.