{"id":338019,"date":"2026-07-13T00:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:07:31","slug":"the-food-is-really-good-customers-react-to-listeria-outbreak-connected-to-china-buffet-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338019\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The food is really good\u2019: Customers react to Listeria outbreak connected to China Buffet in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida health officials announced a Listeria outbreak connected to a Chinese buffet in Tampa. While Listeria<\/a> symptoms typically look like food poisoning, pregnant women, adults 65 and older, and people with weak immune systems are more likely to get seriously sick.<\/p>\n

China Buffet on East Fowler has its regulars.<\/p>\n

“I came here quite a bit before they did the renovations when I lived on the side of town,” said Joshua Arevalo, a customer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Listeria outbreak connected to Tampa restaurant, health officials say\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

“The food is really good. I love it. I mainly go because of the crab legs,” said Renee Chabebe, another customer.<\/p>\n

Friday, the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County announced a Listeria outbreak originated at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

“To be honest with you, it’s a surprising \u2014 obviously it makes me rethink going here to eat right now,” Arevalo said.<\/p>\n

The DOH said of the five people included in the outbreak, four ate at the restaurant between March and June 2026.<\/p>\n

Dr. Adelor Zamora is an infectious disease specialist and the medical director of the Infection Prevention Program at HCA Brandon. He said he’s eaten at China Buffet before.<\/p>\n

“But thank God, basically I’m not sick,” Zamora said.<\/p>\n

He said Listeria cases are common in the summer, though they go under reported.<\/p>\n

“The most common symptom is always gastroenteritis. It causes diarrhea, fevers, abdominal cramping,” Zamora said.<\/p>\n

Those symptoms are similar to the other diarrhea-causing illness, Cyclosporiasis<\/a>. There are 50 confirmed cases across the state and two of them are in Hillsborough County, according to FDOH.<\/p>\n

“Cyclospora is a parasite. The Listeria is a bacteria. So that’s the main difference. They’re all foodborne illness, meaning they contaminate the food. And once you ingest it, you get infected,” Zamora said.<\/p>\n

China Buffet’s manager told 8 On Your Side that in June they got the restaurant cleaned up and reopened but didn’t want to give any further comment.<\/p>\n

Chabebe said she was there in June, and said she plans to keep coming back.<\/p>\n

“I ask what happened and then they told me they had some health, you know, inspection and they had to throw all the food,” she said.<\/p>\n

The DOH said they’ve conducted multiple onsite assessments and gave the restaurant required remediation measures.<\/p>\n

“I would probably wind up actually trusting, going to eat here, knowing that someone has already been on top of things and has actually looked at it,” Arevalo said.<\/p>\n

Doctors recommend washing your hands and food thoroughly and said to seek medical attention as soon as possible if you feel sick.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Florida health officials announced a Listeria outbreak connected to a Chinese buffet in Tampa.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[137804,1369,129402,139103,139102,61628,139101,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-338019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-adelor-zamora","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-food-poisoning","tag-infectious-disease-specialist","tag-joshua-arevalo","tag-listeria","tag-listeria-outbreak","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}