According to the Alabama Department of public Health, Darvin McDaniel of Indelible Catering of Moulton has surrendered his food service permit and is not authorized to prepare food for catering in Alabama.
Officials say McDaniel’s catering business was responsible for a recent Salmonella enteritidis outbreak that occurred in Sheffield in November 2016 in which dozens of people became ill. As part of the investigation, ADPH issued an emergency order November 16, 2016, to prevent Indelible Catering from preparing food pending the outcome of the investigation.
In the investigation, ADPH followed standard outbreak procedures including interviewing patients, obtaining patient specimens, inspecting the food source, and obtaining food samples for processing by the Alabama Department of Public Health’s laboratory.
Dr. Scott Harris, Assistant State Health Officer, stated, “The health department’s priority is the health of the public and preventing any additional foodborne illnesses. Make sure the caterer you hire for any event has a permit from the health department.”
Food safety practices can reduce the risk of foodborne outbreaks. Some measures to reduce illness include keeping food properly refrigerated before cooking, washing hands with soap and warm water before handling foods, and cleaning surfaces before preparing foods on them.
Follow these practices when preparing foods:
- Separate cooked foods from ready-to-eat foods.
- Do not use utensils on cooked foods that were previously used on raw foods and do not place cooked foods on plates where raw foods once were unless the plates have been cleaned thoroughly.
- Cook foods to a safe internal temperature. Use a meat thermometer to make sure foods are cooked to a safe temperature.
- Chill foods promptly after serving and when transporting from one place to another. Safe temperatures for food preparation are available on many websites including foodsafety.gov.