A total of 17 people have gone down with “severe food poisoning” after eating at two restaurants operated by a gourmet burger chain in the capital city of Spain. Two people are in hospital but are reported to be “doing well” having eaten at the award-winning Hundred Burgers in Madrid.
Health experts are said to be analyzing whether the poisonings were caused by an outbreak of salmonella, according to The Olive Press.
A government spokesperson for the Madrid region has said that public health services are investigating and that it could be linked to “contaminated sauces”.
The outbreak is claimed to have originated from a truffle egg yolk sauce and affected customers who visited the restaurants on Calle Eloy Gonzalo and Plaza de Pedro Zerolo in Madrid last Sunday and Monday (August 4 and 5).
Around 150 people are being checked for being exposed to the product on the two days. Those affected are said to have presented with symptoms including fever, vomiting and diarrhea.
The incident is believed to be isolated.
The chain published an official statement on Thursday, August 8 on Instagram, confirming the two stores would remain closed until further notice and until they obtain the final results of the analyses.
A spokesperson said: “As a precautionary principle, and until we obtain the final results of all the analyzes that the health authorities and ourselves are carrying out, Hundred has decided not to open our Madrid stores until further notice.
“It is in relation to the case of salmonella in our restaurants in Eloy Gonzalo and Plaza Pedro Zerolo in Madrid related to a batch of truffled egg yolk sauce that was on sale between Sunday 4 and Monday 5 exclusively in those two stores.
“We maintain constant collaboration with the health authorities and we remain in constant contact with those affected to monitor their progress. The Hundred team is available to affected customers on 722892552. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
One affected diner said they only started getting symptoms the next day. They said “We ordered several hamburgers and at first everything was fine, we didn't notice any strange tastes or anything, but the next day we started to feel bad.
“We had to go to hospital and we were told that it was food poisoning.”
In January 2022, the chain won the title of Spain's best hamburger for the second year in a row, in a list of 50 restaurants, having also won the regional VLC BURGER SHOWDOWN, according to The Olive Press.
Express.co.uk reached out to Hundred Burgers for a comment.