On October 1, 2019, Salt Lake County Health Department launched an investigation into Spitz restaurant, including the location at 3158 E 6200 Street in Holladay, Utah, after two cases with confirmed and matching Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157 infections were reported to have eaten there. Both confirmed cases were male and between 20-49 years of age.
The health department also identified another ill case who had consumed food from a Spitz location in Utah County. A total of four laboratory confirmed cases were considered part of this outbreak. Exposure to two different Spitz locations occurred on September 9 – September 12, 2019. Cases fell ill with nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea between September 11 and September 17, and two cases were hospitalized. This cluster was assigned the CDC cluster code 1909UTEXH-1.
Inspection of the restaurant confirmed that the location had issues with proper holding temperatures for meat on the spit and issues with proper procedures for raw and ready-to-eat meats. The location staff were also noted to lack food safety knowledge.