The lawsuit says Yee Cheung was admitted to Martha Jefferson Hospital for extensive dehydration and pain. State lab tests showed the source to be salmonella contamination. County health officials said employees at the business mixed raw eggs and vegetable oil to make a mayonnaiselike spread that was put on sandwiches. Cultures from at least 30 people showed salmonella infection. Because of the risk of salmonella contamination, state regulations prohibit restaurants from using raw eggs in foods that will not be cooked before being served.
Cooking usually kills the bacteria.
In the suit, Fai Cheung, a self-employed restaurant operator, also maintains he suffered financial losses after he was unable to work at his Fluvanna County restaurant briefly while health officials waited for tests on cultures taken from him. Those tests eventually came back negative for salmonella. We may have told them they could not return to work until their cultures came back negative. We are just trying to prevent it from spreading to other restaurants. Salmonella infection is usually self-limiting with no serious complications in most instances, but can be more serious in young children and the elderly.