Bad Noodles Send 46 Suspected Food Poisoning Victims To Hospitals

Updated at 5:35 p.m. Friday

JESSUP, MD — Forty-six people were taken to multiple area hospitals after health officials said they likely contracted food poisoning from eating noodles brought to their workplace by a co-worker.

Around 3:45 p.m. Monday, Howard County firefighters and paramedics were called to the 7700 block of Chesapeake Bay Court in Jessup for a report of multiple patients with the symptoms of food poisoning after they ate the same dish, according to the fire department.

A total of 46 patients were considered non-critical and taken to the hospital.

Howard County Health Department officials believe the food that sickened people was prepared by an employee of the Jessup facility where the incident occurred and was shared with others.

In a phone call Tuesday with The Baltimore Sun, an employee at NAFCO Wholesale Fish Dealers, a seafood distributor located at 7775 Chesapeake Bay Court, confirmed the people who became sick were employees there.

Howard County health officials said they will work with the Maryland Department of Health to investigate the exact cause of the incident.

“Preliminary indications are that the illness was related to outside food prepared by an employee and shared with others at the facility,” the department told WBAL.

The station reported a worker at the plant brought a noodle dish to share with coworkers, and an hour later, people became sick.

Howard County resident Easter Kim said she was waiting in the Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center emergency room Monday afternoon when a rush of ambulances and patients arrived. Patients brought in from the ambulances were clutching their stomachs and looked nauseous, Kim told The Baltimore Sun.

“There was a lot of commotion,” Kim said. “I’ve never seen such a mess like that.”