Canirac investigates claims of food poisoning from the English ambassador and his family

The Yucatan delegation of the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry and Seasoned Foods (Canirac) immediately began collecting information on the report made by the British ambassador Jon Benjamín, on his social media on Facebook and Twitter, of a serious food poisoning case he and his family suffered in a restaurant on Paseo de Montejo.

(TYT) Jon Benjamin, the UK ambassador to Mexico, lamented that his recent visit to Mérida and nearby communities in Yucatán caused him and his family to end up hospitalized in Mexico City for a severe case of food poisoning. He said they contracted a strong infection while eating at a restaurant on Paseo de Montejo, whose name he did not reveal.

After this news, the secretary of Yucatan Tourism Promotion, Michelle Fridman Hirsch, immediately asked for details of the case so that she could begin an investigation of the sanitary measures in the establishment and wished the ambassador a speedy recovery.

With the open controversy, both the British ambassador and Michelle Fridman did not make any more public comments but had a private communication to avoid fueling speculation and increasing criticism against the restaurants and against the official in particular.

Muchas gracias @Mich_fridman – ya les hice llegar por mensaje privado cuál era el restaurante en cuestión. Aprecio sus atenciones. https://t.co/ekMLKr0Cgs

— (((Jon Benjamin))) 🇬🇧🇲🇽🇨🇱🇬🇭 ✡️ (@JonBenjamin19) April 16, 2022

Information was requested from the local Canirac because it was a restaurant involved. It was reported that the president, Claudia González Góngora, who recently took office on March 15, began a business investigation to find out if this restaurant is a member of the Chamber or not.

A source from this restaurant chamber said that the ambassador’s statement is serious, but that the chamber cannot act lightly and prefers that the health authorities carry out the corresponding official health investigations.

According to the photographs that he published of his tour of Yucatan, the English ambassador began his visit on Wednesday, April 13, touring Uxmal, Izamal, Celestún, and Mérida.

On Saturday, April 16th, the ambassador published a photograph of his admission to a hospital in Mexico City.

This case of the British ambassador reminded the Canirac of Yucatan of the situation of the restaurant El Fogoncito on Prolongación Paseo de Montejo, which was also involved in a similar case in August 2013.

After the accusations and closure of the place, it turned out that the investigations determined that the Campeche family that suffered the food poisoning, which caused the death of a 28-year-old mother and her 3-year-old daughter, came as a result of eating street panuchos in Maxcanú.

In this deadly case of poisoning, the Directorates of Protection against Sanitary Risks and the State Public Health Laboratory carried out tests to verify whether the foods of the accused restaurant were the cause of the poisoning that resulted in “acute gastrointestinal infection” and the death of 2 people.

The test consisted of taking 35 samples at the points where the people were. Finally, the health authorities of Yucatan determined that the poisoning picture was the product of having eaten at a panuchos street stall in Maxcanú.

TYT Newsroom