Jávea hotel's 39 guests get food poisoning from mussels

The Spanish gency for Consumption, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECSAN), whom the hotel was required to notify of the incident in accordance with standard procedure, says only two of the guests needed hospital treatment.

One went to A&E with stomach pains and was discharged hours later after being treated, whilst another remained there for two days.

All those affected are said to be recovering well and no new cases are expected.

The 39 patients, all said to be pensioners, had been staying at the undisclosed hotel on Jávea's most-frequented beach over Easter weekend.

According to AECSAN, the mussels, designed for freezing, were labelled Mejillón media concha súper – effectively, 'super-sized' open-shelled mussels – and were from the brand Estrella Polar.

The mussels were from the seas in Galicia in Spain's far north-west, with a packaging date of January 19, 2018 and a use-by date of January 2020.

AECSAN released the batch number – 010DOP-18 – as a precaution so supermarkets, restaurants and fishmongers would know to remove them from the shelves.

They have only been distributed in the Comunidad Valenciana and in Navarra, and as a result of AECSAN's recall, are being taken off sale.

Anyone who believes they may have these at home should avoid eating them and return them to the point of sale.

The agency received the alert yesterday (Thursday) from regional health authorities after the crisis had passed and said the food poisoning cases were caused by the norovirus GI and GII, which was found both in the mussels and in stool samples taken from patients.

Hotel sources assure that as soon as they became aware of the problem, they removed and destroyed the rogue batches and alerted the relevant authorities.