Bologna, 8 March 2026 – The company Osaka Snc, owner of the Kayama restaurant in via Risorgimento in Zola Predosa, responds to the article published on these pages last Thursday regarding the intoxication that involved several dozen customers of the establishment over the past weekend. According to the owners “It was not a case of food poisoning.
The competent authority (AUSL) has confirmed that the episode can be traced back to a norovirus epidemic, as can also be seen from the analyzes carried out by the hospital on the patients involved. We would also like to clarify that there was no intervention by the Carabinieri or the Nas at our premises. The only authority that intervened was the Local Health Authority, as part of the normal health epidemiological verification procedures. As part of the same epidemiological investigation they were subjected to some members of our staff also carried out investigations, and some of them are results positive al norovirus a circumstance which confirms the viral nature of the episode and not food contamination. We therefore believe that the published article contains incorrect information which is causing serious damage to the reputation and image of our restaurant.”
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We note that the authority that ordered the closure of the restaurant is the Local Health Authority rather than the Nas and we apologize for the inaccuracy. However, at the time of writing the Kayama restaurant is still closed and the Local Health Authority has not disclosed the definitive results of the analyzes on the origin of the mass gastroenteritis, which is however confirmed by the managers themselves. As regards the attribution to norovirus which would emerge from the preliminary results of which the company declares itself aware, we report from the website of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità: “The transmission of norovirus occurs directly from person to person, via fecal-oral or via aerosol, or via infected water or food, but also by contact with contaminated surfaces. In the majority of documented cases, transmission occurred through the consumption of contaminated water or food. (…) The only form of effective control of norovirus is the implementation of rigorous hygiene measures in the handling and distribution of food and drink.”
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