The owner of Delight Restaurant & BBQ in Markham, Ont., is vowing to carefully check all ingredients used in his dishes after several people were hospitalized after dining there last month.
An investigation conducted by York Region Public Health determined that the illnesses resulted from potential aconite poisoning.
The health unit said a product, Mr. Right brand Keampferia Galanga Powder, which is a common spice used in Asian cuisine, may have been contaminated with aconite toxin.
The aconitine toxin comes from the roots of the poisonous Monkshood plant, which is also known as Wolfsbane or Keampfeira.
After the incident, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled the spice across the country.
Christine Hou, President of the Chinese Cuisine & Hospitality Association of Canada, who hosted a press conference at the restaurant on Wednesday, said the association wants to “bring public awareness to food safety and labelling issues.”
“After the investigation from the public health department, we also did some probe into this incident,” Hou said.
Hou said the association was provided with photos of the Galanga powder the restaurant’s owner, Yong Kang Liu purchased, which appeared to have been mislabeled.
“For the whole food supply chain, not only the restaurant, but also the manufacturer, importer, distributor and supermarket, we want to call upon everybody on this food chain logistics in this industry to show serious attention to this kind of issue,” she said.
Hou said the restaurant’s owner, Liu, spent half a million dollars to buy the business, renovations and getting it ready to open in May of this year.
He worked as a professional chef at a restaurant in Toronto since 2003, but decided it was finally time to open his own restaurant to live out his “Canadian dream.”
Hou said Liu put all of his savings, hope and effort into opening Delight Restaurant & BBQ.
She said, though, that this incident has had a “huge impact” on the restaurant.
Hou said usually by mid-afternoon, there is a lineup of customers.
However, after the incident, the restaurant has seen a significant drop in customers.
She said Liu is “sincerely hoping that this incident can be gone and that the customers come back.”
Hou said Liu “always wants to do a better job,” adding that he has vowed to check “everything he’s buying” and to double check products he has delivered.
“(He’s) training his whole team to check and differentiate the good quality (products),” she said.
Liu and his wife are also going to “better service for customers,” adding that they are very grateful for their customers, Hou said.
The restaurant was temporarily closed following the incident and was re-inspected on Aug. 31.
The health unit said the restaurant “successfully passed the inspection” and was permitted to reopen.
Markham city councillor Amanda Collucci said she is a regular patron of the restaurant, dining at the establishment at least once a week.
“This restaurant has always been a very, very popular restaurant in my ward here,” she said, adding that the food is “amazing” and the prices are “extremely reasonable.”
She said the service is fast despite there always being a long line up.
“Clearly this incident really affected them negatively,” she continued. “But at the same time I wanted to make sure that all the residents, especially my local residents here do know that this was just an accident and has nothing to do with intentional, or anything like that.”
“Their food is always clean, the service is really really fast and they always have really, really high quality standard of food,” Collucci said.
She echoed Hou’s remarks, saying the responsibility should not be wholly on Liu who purchased the product.
“It’s the whole supply chain,” she said, noting that food inspection and whoever mislabeled the product should share in the responsibility.
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