Nineteen sick with food poisoning after eating pub carvery

Torfaen Council responded to reports of customers feeling unwell after eating at the Cwrt Henllys Bar & Restaurant

There have been nineteen confirmed cases of food poisoning after customers who ate a carvery at a pub became unwell.

Torfaen Council investigated reports of customers feeling unwell after eating at the Cwrt Henllys Bar & Restaurant, in Cwmbran, on 5 October.

The council confirmed the cause of food poisoning was Clostridium perfringens, a bacteria which can grow while food cools down. It said there was no wider public risk.

The pub said it had made "positive changes" since the incident and had "taken on all of the advice and support" from environmental health teams.

Following the council's investigation, it said no further cases had been reported.

At the start of October, it was reported that 52 people were unwell with suspected food poisoning.

What is Clostridium perfringens?

According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Clostridium perfringens is a bacteria widespread in animals and the environment.

Its spores can survive cooking and grow during cooling and unrefrigerated storage.

The FSA's website said: "Outbreaks of C. perfringens food poisoning tend to happen in settings where large groups of people and/or food are being served and where keeping food at safe temperatures may be difficult.

"This also applies to batch cooking at home where you may leave food out to cool longer than you intended while preparing other food."

The BBC has contacted the Cwrt Henllys Bar & Restaurant for comment, but in a statement shared on Facebook the business said it believed three or four tables had been affected by the illness.

"Whilst these results bring some closure to us and our patrons (who are the most important thing) we are still left with questions which we likely won't ever have answers for," the statement said.

"We are currently pursuing a potential supplier issue as there has been a number of reported concerns of contaminated turkey. We have not had a positive result come back from food product which was taken from our kitchen and tested.

"Our environmental health team have been absolutely wonderful and we've worked really closely with them in regards to our processes and taken on all of their advice and support.

"We've made positive changes to ensure that moving forwards there will never be a 'cooling down' period because your food will go from oven to plate straight away, but it's also important to note that we don't have actual physical evidence of us being responsible.

"We have never been advised to close our kitchen and there has never been a further risk to our public.

"It's all very tricky. Be that as it may, our number one priority is still to be supportive of our customers, to hear them and to try to put things right."

The restaurant asked anyone with a positive test result to contact the business to discuss further.