Cronut Burger Wrap-Up: six ridiculous facts to take away from the public health fiasco

The Cronut Burger probe came to a surprising close yesterday when Toronto Public Health officials fingered the beef-stuffed pastry’s drizzle of maple-bacon jam for poisoning 223 people at the CNE. The toxic condiment—a slurry of bacon, maple syrup, water and brown sugar created by Toronto’s Le Dolci bakery (and likened by Gawker to dog puke)—topped the burgers sold at the Epic Burgers stand, which suffered a major backlash last week when reports of food poisoning went viral. Here, the six most delightfully absurd tidbits to come out of the culinary scandal.

• There’s a commemorative T-shirt

Little more than 24 hours after the epic puke-fest began, these classy tees were up on Etsy for $28 (plus $5 shipping and handling).

• The health inspector in charge of Cronutgate had the best name ever

It was up to health officer Dr. Lisa Berger to get to the bottom of things. Seriously.

• One woman ate the world (and felt queasy)

Courtesy of the CBC, the most duh-inducing quote of the year: “One [man] said his wife became sick after eating the cronut burger, as well as seafood chowder fries, ice cream waffles and a smoothie.” No! Really!?!

• Toronto Public Health presented some alarming math

One hundred and fifty sick people were interviewed by health officials (out of 223 who reported symptoms). Seventy-nine confirmed eating the Cronut Burger. Which means…71 got sick from something else?

• The copycat has a copycat

A little staphylococcus aureus isn’t stopping Montreal restaurant Jukebox Burgers from launching its own cronut burger at an upcoming food festival.

• Poisoning 223 people saved Le Dolci bakery from a lawsuit

Despite scathing tweets, New York Cronut originator Dominique Ansel says he won’t pursue a trademark lawsuit against the bakery in light of “recent failures of their own.”