LANSING, MICH. (WLNS)-One day after Carrabba’s voluntarily closed for sanitizing, more people have called the Barry Eaton District Health Department, saying they felt sick after a visit to the Lansing restaurant.According to the health department’s supervisor for the Food Safety program, Greg Cabose, it appears an outbreak did occur at Carrabba’s. He says the outbreak seems to be stopped and that his office is currently working to determine what specifically caused people to become sick.Carrabba’s reopens today at 4 p.m. after voluntarily taking time to thoroughly sanitize the restaurant. Cabose says that the health department inspected the facility and felt that Carrabba’s cleaned well. He added that the restaurant replaced most of its food supply and is screening staff members for added precaution.The health department is still investigating and reviewing data to determine what foods might have led to this outbreak. Initially, 6 News learned yesterday that four people called the health department and that all had eaten at Carrabba’s within a 24-hour period. Yesterday, the health department wasn’t sure if Carrabba’s was the source of the health issues. Today, Cabose said additional people have reached out to his office. These people appear to have been in large groups that ate in the Lansing restaurant on Saturday or Sunday. 6 News reached out to Carrabba’s parent company, Bloomin’ Brands for comment. The company spokesperson, Elizabeth Watts, confirmed the steps taken and referred to her statement from yesterday.
“When we received calls that people had become ill, we didn’t want to take any chances and voluntarily closed the restaurant yesterday. We immediately discarded all food and began sanitizing the restaurant from top to bottom. We will continue to closely monitor employees and have always had the rule that only healthy team members will work. We’ve been in touch with the health department, who has confirmed we’re taking all the right steps and say it is safe for us to reopen…”
