Japan: Grilled Eel Dish Kills Woman and Sickens 140 Others

A grilled sea eel dish, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, caused food poisoning at the “Keikyu” store in Yokohama, resulting in the death of a woman and the illness of over 140 people.

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• The store manager, Shinji Kaneko, apologized after customers who bought meals containing grilled eel suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. Kaneko stated that one of the victims, a woman in her nineties, passed away, offering his heartfelt condolences.

The meals included eel cooked in the traditional “Kabayaki” style, a grilling method where the fish is covered with a mixture of soy sauce and rice wine for cooking. Eel, consumed worldwide, is particularly popular in Asia, and remains found in Japanese tombs show that it has been eaten in the archipelago for thousands of years.

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The “Keikyu” store explained that an investigation conducted by health officials revealed the presence of a bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus in the products.

The Isesada restaurant, located in Tokyo, which operates a stall inside the “Keikyu” store, was responsible for cooking and selling the eel products.