King County warns public of stomach illness linked to sushi restaurant in Seattle

The Public Health Department for Seattle and King County is investigating a series of illnesses linked to a Seattle Sushi restaurant.

On Friday, September 27, the health department alerted the public that five people got sick after eating at the Fuji Sushi restaurant at 520 South Main Street in downtown Seattle.

The five people, who were part of the same group, complained about stomach illness after dining at the restaurant on September 16.

Four days after dining at the restaurant, each person in the group started experiencing symptoms.

“All five people had one or more signs consistent with a bacterial infection, including feeling sick, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and chills, but other causes cannot be ruled out,” The health department wrote.

On September 25, the Health department inspected the restaurant and found unsafe practices on how the food was handled and prepared.

“We found many unsafe food safety practices including restaurant staff not washing their hands properly and not wearing gloves when touching different food items. We also found the restaurant prepared food items in a way that allowed for ready-to-eat foods to be contaminated by raw foods,” the health department wrote. “Because of the many unsafe food safety practices seen at the restaurant, we closed Fuji Sushi immediately and they will not reopen until we revisit the restaurant to make sure they have fixed these problems.”

Employees were instructed to stay home if experiencing stomach sickness and return to work only after 24 hours without symptoms.

The health department has not determined which specific food or drink caused the illness.