All 187 Pepper Lunch restaurants closed after food poisoning

Monday 07th September, 02:44 PM JST

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seesaw at 08:34 PM JST - 7th September

yea..it's Japan, KallyPygous.
DailyBread at 08:36 PM JST - 7th September

How specifically do you keep O-157 off of your beef?

simply subtract it
Mark_McCracken at 08:41 PM JST - 7th September

Considering all the raw meat that is presented to customers in Japan, whether it be in shabu-shabu, yakiniku, nabe or hot-plate places like Pepper Steak, it's somewhat surprising that there aren't more cases of food poisoning. Many, if not most of the cases of 0-157 poisoning could be eliminated if restaurants would completely cook the meat themselves and present the dish ready-to-eat to the customer.
timorborder at 09:31 PM JST - 7th September

Considering all the raw meat that is presented to customers in Japan, whether it be in shabu-shabu, yakiniku, nabe or hot-plate places like Pepper Steak, it's somewhat surprising that there aren't more cases of food poisoning. Many, if not most of the cases of 0-157 poisoning could be eliminated if restaurants would completely cook the meat themselves and present the dish ready-to-eat to the customer.

Unfortunately, it ain't that simple. The issue here is how the meat is prepared. A lot of meat (cuts) are very much removed from intestinal (fecal) matter, as such there is little or no risk of 0-157. It is the mince and poor food handling that catches people out.
bamboohat at 09:34 PM JST - 7th September

Some of those pepper beef lunches come pretty rare. Clearly a supply issue. Not sure that closing all the restaurants is a wise move. Might look good on paper, but it kind of publicly deletes the idea of a processing plant problem, and gives the impression that your very own neighborhood pepper lunch might kill you, rather than some processing plant of foreign beef.

I guess the execs are putting on some "safety is more important that profit" show or something, OR they really have no clue what to do.
Mark_McCracken at 09:54 PM JST - 7th September

It is the mince and poor food handling that catches people out.

Yes, I agree that handling of raw meat, and the utensils that touch the raw meat is most important. Assuming though that you had beef that was contaminated with O-157, yet fully cooked it in the restaurant, and observed correct procedures regarding utensils and countertops, wouldn't that eliminate most of the illnesses caused by 0-157? Contrast that with taking the same contaminated beef, and handing it to the customer uncooked and relying on the customer to, for example, not eat with the chopsticks that he uses to put the contaminated beef on the yakiniku grill.
HalcyonDaze at 11:28 PM JST - 7th September

On a related topic, half-cooked chicken seems to be standard fare at yakitoriya's in Japan so I've often wondered how they manage to avoid mass outbreaks of salmonella poisoning? My Japanese friends seem to think it's perfectly safe but I thought that all poultry contains salmonella bacteria so I'm not entirely convinced. Can someone enlighten me?
noborito at 12:22 AM JST - 8th September

their beef is red sometimes. I ask them to reheat their plate and they do so with a smile. one of the few fast paced places I enjoy Japan. I hope they open soon. I need my pepper lunch.
Fadamor at 01:11 AM JST - 8th September

Chicken that still has a pinkish color to is is not cooked well enough.

You normally see E-coli contamination in ground beef because that usually comes from the parts of the cow that don't make good roasts and steaks. The grinding process lets any contamination get in the middle of the beef mass, where it takes the longest for temperatures to get high enough to kill the bacteria.

Steaks and roasts normally don't have a problem because any contamination is on the surface of the meat slab and would be the first thing heated up beyond the bacteria's tolerance level. So you could have a piece of steak that is blood-red in the middle once it's sliced, but it would still be perfectly fine because the bacteria were killed when the outside was grilled.

That's why you see warnings about cooking hamburgers well, but not really any warnings about other cuts of meat.
XXXXX at 02:38 AM JST - 8th September

what's cheap ends up costly
TokyoRoughGuy at 04:30 AM JST - 8th September

I'll be there for the big discounts once they re-open.
dreamdrifter at 07:35 AM JST - 8th September

@HalcyonDaze

Using well-sourced meat which is infinitely fresh, taking great care to avoid cross-contamination from intestines (where the majority of the bacteria are) and using cooking techniques which kill surface bacteria (searing / blanching etc.) are all crucial in reducing the risk of food poisoning from chicken meat. However as with eating anything raw it is not 100% safe. Most people are happy to take the risk if prepared properly as the risk is minimal but food poisoning does happen and it'll be wise to keep undercooked chicken away from the elderly, the weak, and young kids.
Farmboy at 09:07 AM JST - 8th September

I think closing, cleaning, and reopening is the only way to regain trust. I would hope they would investigate things at the supply end as well, and make appropriate changes. Otherwise, lingering doubts would kill the business. At least this way they have a chance at regaining customers.
AdachikuMaster at 10:34 AM JST - 8th September

>

I'll be there for the big discounts once they re-open. >

This is how I see things too.... People are thinking too much.
Klein2 at 12:59 PM JST - 8th September

Mark. In answer to your question, you can't keep 0-157 off your meat using industrial methods. That is my point. Things go so quickly in modern abattoirs that goo gets sprayed.

If you butcher your own, as people used to do, you can definitely keep the fecal matter off of the steaks. It takes longer, but you are using a knife, not a chainsaw or radial saw. I am a DIY guy. I do not do my own butchering, but I know the name of my butcher, and we talk about where my cuts are coming from. He saves neat stuff for me. I am not his biggest customer, but he knows I appreciate him and his work.

My point is that virtually all of society relies on food processing so much that they have thrown common sense out of the window. Nobody buys a whole chicken anymore, even though simple cutting with a sharp knife can save about half the cost of a chicken. People put their eggs in the refrigerator. You do, don't you? Tomatoes too. Why? Nobody cares. That is where food goes, right? Pressure cookers literally explode the bacteria, but nobody uses them. Too complicated, I guess. People will throw out yogurt on its sell by date, but will tuck into beef (at restaurants such as PEPPER) that can't be grade A.

Along with that point is my observation that this will continue to happen because people seriously don't care. They just want food. Adachiku does not care as long as it is cheap. People do not know what it is, where it comes from, how it is made, and they really don't want to know. They just want to watch TV and hope that they don't get sick.

And finally.... This is all setting us up for Soylent Green big time. Seriously, people take it for granted that they are not already eating Soylent Green? Let me be the first to scream out, as Charlton Heston did.... GROUND BEEF IS PEOPLE!