Maple Bacon Jam in Cronut Burgers Caused Food Poisoning Outbreak

The Cronut was innocent.

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Dominique Ansel Bakery

The original Cronut, which has inspired knockoffs nationwide, including the Cronut Burger in Toronto that sickened more than 200.

While rumors say the Cronut was behind the recent food poisoning incident that sickened more than 200 patrons at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto, Ontario, health officials have cleared the Cronut of any wrongdoing. Turns out maple bacon jam is the real culprit.

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During their investigation of the outbreak, Toronto Public Health found that the common element among the 223 food poisoning complaints they received from people who fell ill after eating at the CNE was the Cronut Burger, which was being served up at the event by EPIC Burgers and Waffles. The Cronut Burger, a variation on Dominique Ansel’s trademark cult doughnut-croissant hybrid, the Cronut, was concocted by the shop as a way of cashing in on the Cronut craze, which has sparked huge lines outside of creator Dominique Ansel’s bakery in New York since its debut and a booming black market on the side.

The Cronut Burger is made from a beef patty topped with cheese served in a cronut-bun drizzled with a maple-bacon jam, a condiment that lab tests say contained Staphylococcus aureus toxin, which can cause food-borne illnesses. Le Dolci, a Toronto bakery that supplied the jam as well as the Cronut-inspired pastries to EPIC Burgers and Waffles, has voluntarily ceased production, according to The Globe and Mail. EPIC Burgers and Waffles had voluntarily closed up shop until samples could be sent to a lab to be analyzed. Now that the culprit is known, the business can reopen its doors to Cronut Burger cravers.

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