State College borough health department investigating popular eatery after complaints of illness
The State College borough is investigating a popular restaurant in the area after it received complaints of people getting sick after eating there — but the owner is adamant that their food is not the cause of the illness.
The borough’s health department is investigating Faccia Luna Pizzeria on South Atherton Street after people complained of illness after eating there this past weekend, borough spokesperson Kayla Lafferty said in an email Tuesday.
“I can confirm that the Borough’s Health Department is currently investigating. The Borough has contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Health about the incident,” Lafferty wrote.
She did not respond to a follow up on how many complaints the borough has received or what the process of the investigation looks like.
In Foodies of State College, a Facebook group with over 20,000 members who share their dining experiences around State College and beyond, a Tuesday post asking if anyone else got sick after eating at Faccia Luna this past weekend has more than 80 comments. Dozens of people said either they or someone else in their group were sick with vomiting and diarrhea after eating there.
Although many of the comments point to the food as the source of their illness, Bill McFadden, owner of Faccia Luna, disagrees. Many people who commented said that they ate a salad at the restaurant and thought that could be the cause. But McFadden said all of his employees are sick too and they didn’t eat any salad. Rather, he thinks it is norovirus, which is very contagious and easily spreads, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People can get it from sick people and through contaminated food, water or surfaces.
“I don’t believe it was the salad because my employees do not eat salad and they are also sick,” McFadden said.
The restaurant was closed on Monday and Tuesday and plans to be closed on Wednesday. They’re working with the health department, McFadden said, and will disinfect the restaurant Wednesday.
“We’re just going to do our best to make sure the place is safe,” he said.
The state’s department of health referred an inquiry about it to the department of agriculture. A spokesperson for the department of agriculture said an investigation could be triggered at the state level if local physicians reported illnesses from customers who ate there.
The state’s department of agriculture oversees restaurant inspections in places that do not have their own local health department. State College is one of the municipalities that does its own restaurant licensing and inspections.
