Epic Burgers reopens without cronut burger after public health investigation

WATCH: Toronto Public Health determines maple bacon jam is the culprit that made cronut eaters sick. Jackson Proskow reports. 

TORONTO – Epic Burgers and Waffles, the restaurant which serves the Cronut burger, has reopened Tuesday after a public health investigation revealed the maple bacon jam topping on the cronut burger was the source of the stomach illness that made more than 200 people sick at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE).

“New lab results indicate that the maple bacon jam, which is one component of the cronut burger, is the cause of food-borne illnesses at the CNE,” said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health in a media release. “We have ensured the contaminated product is not served. There is no risk to the public.”

READ MORE: Bacteria in CNE’s Cronut burger likely caused illness in 150

TPH said it is focusing further investigation on the supplier of the bacon jam, Le Dolci, to find out how the contamination occurred. Meanwhile, Le Dolci has voluntarily stopped production of the product.

Epic Burgers and Waffles, the food operator that served the Cronut burger, was forced to close throughout the investigation but reopened late Tuesday morning.

“The jam was used as a topping solely on one of our menu items, the Cronut burger,” said Epic Burgers in a statement released on Facebook. The statement added that Epic Burgers had removed the Cronut Burger from its menu and will no longer do business with Le Dolci.

TPH said they have received 223 reports from people with gastrointestinal symptoms after consuming food at the CNE from August 16 to August 20.

David Bednar, General Manager of the CNE, said in an interview Tuesday that he was pleased the investigation into “an extremely unfortunate incident” was completed and expressed confidence that Epic Burgers was safe to reopen.

 “He sanitized the booth, he threw away all of the food product that was there before, he’s been re-inspected and we’re absolutely confident that we’re going to go ahead here with a very clean, successful food operation.”

But does 223 people reporting illnesses have a negative effect on the CNE’s reputation? Bednar doesn’t think so.

“This kind of thing is never something that anybody would ever want to have happen,” he said. “However I’ve taken some comfort from the public reaction that seems to be at least an understanding that the CNE does try to do everything it can to try and avoid this kind of thing.”

–        With files from Jackson Proskow