2 dead, 14 hospitalized after eating tainted sausage and turnip top sandwiches in Italy

Two people died and 14 others, including two teenagers, were hospitalized after eating sausage and turnip top paninis from a food truck in southwest Italy linked to the country’s second toxic botulism outbreak in a month.

Luigi di Sarno, 52, and Tamara D’Acunto, 45, died within two days of ingesting the tainted sandwiches. Another 14 people were hospitalized with food poisoning, The Telegraph reported.

Di Sarno, an artist, was sent home from the hospital even after complaining he wasn’t feeling well and later died, his sister told the outlet.

All of the victims ate sandwiches from a food truck near the town of Diamante in Calabria, which spans across the toe of Italy’s boot, according to authorities investigating the botulism outbreak.

They each ordered the same meal: a panini topped with grilled sausage and cime di rapa — or turnip tops in English, officials said.

Giuseppe Santonocito, the 33-year-old owner of the seized food truck, and his three employees who allegedly made the tainted paninis are under investigation.

Officials also ordered a nationwide seizure of the panini, which was commercially produced, and are probing other products sold at the truck.

Santonocito purchased the produce used in the paninis in late July, and only had enough to make “six or seven” sandwiches before they ran out, his lawyer told the outlet.

“He is psychologically devastated. He has worked for around nine years in the food sector and he is well respected. He is convinced that the contamination was already in the products that he served,” his lawyer said.

Five doctors who treated the victims at two different hospitals are also being probed for apparently not making their diagnoses quickly enough, officials said.

Botulism, a bacterial infection, is most commonly linked to food poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In extreme cases, it can cause muscle paralysis and even death.

In late July, another toxic botulism outbreak in Sardinia, an island west of Italy’s mainland, left one woman dead after eating spoiled guacamole at a festival. Seven others, including an 11-year-old boy, were treated for food poisoning.

Italy’s Ministry of Health “immediately activated all the health protocols” following the dual outbreaks to ensure “that patients had timely access to life-saving antidote treatments,” according to the government agency.