Gastrointestinal illness outbreak associated with Thanksgiving meals from Kanishka Cuisine of India in Seattle

Summary

Public Health is investigating an outbreak of gastrointestinal (stomach) illness associated with food served as part of Kanishka Cuisine of India’s “Fusion Thanksgiving Feast” in Seattle. This food was prepared at the restaurant for pick up by customers or delivery by the restaurant.

We haven’t found a specific food or drink from the Fusion Thanksgiving Feast menu that caused this outbreak. However, the illnesses match what we see with bacterial toxins. These are poisons made by certain bacteria that can grow quickly when food is left at room temperature. When that happens, the food can become contaminated and make people sick.

This outbreak appears to be over, and our investigation is ongoing.

Illnesses

Since November 28, 2025, 35 people reported becoming sick after eating food from Kanishka’s “Fusion Thanksgiving Feast”. They reported one or more symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach pains, feeling sick (nausea), vomiting, fatigue, headache, and body aches.

We did not find any sick restaurant workers with signs of gastrointestinal illness.

Public Health actions

We interviewed 16 people who became sick to learn more about their symptoms and what they ate.
On December 2, we visited the restaurant and found several problems that could have contributed to this outbreak:

• Not having the proper equipment or kitchen space to safely prepare both their regular food service and the extra food for the Fusion Thanksgiving Feast.
• The cooling methods they used may not have brought the food down to a safe temperature.
• Some foods weren’t kept cold enough to stop bacterial toxins from growing.

We provided education to the establishment on how to cool food safely and reminded them that they must limit the scale of their food preparation to what has been approved by Public Health.

On December 4, we went back to the restaurant to check if the earlier food safety problems had been fixed. During our visit, we saw that food was still being cooled improperly and that items requiring refrigeration were being kept at room temperature. Because these issues could make people sick, we closed the restaurant until they are fixed. While closed, the restaurant threw out unsafe food and will be retraining staff on safe food handling.

Laboratory testing

Tests on four sick people came back negative for germs that commonly cause gastrointestinal illness in people like norovirus, Salmonella, and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). However, these tests don’t check for bacteria that make toxins.

Illness from bacterial toxins usually starts quickly after eating and ends within a short time. By the time someone sees a doctor, it is usually too late to test.