Can eating at Lubbock restaurants be hazardous to your health? It can according to one health magazine. In their October issue, Men`s Health magazine rated 101 cities across the nation for food-borne illnesses.
Baltimore had the fewest cases. Lubbock finished dead last.
The magazine says, “The Hub City has seen more food-borne illness outbreaks per capita than any other on our list.”
The articles states that they arrived at the ratings from data collected from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and a community health project that found outbreaks of e-coli, salmonella and shigella.
The Lubbock Health Department says they have those same numbers, but fiercely object to the magazine`s ratings.
“To me, it`s a bald faced lie,” says Bridget Faulkenberry, Environmental Health Manager for the Lubbock Health Department. “We have not had a major outbreak. I want somenoe held accontable for what they`re saying about our city.”
Representatives of Men`s Health magazine did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails.
Faulkenberry says Lubbock did have a community outbreak of shigella in 1997-98 and 2003. But she says those were in daycare and schoolchildren, not food-borne in restaurants.