An elderly woman whose death sparked a listeria scare and the closure of a suburban caterer is unlikely to have eaten food from the company, leaked documents show, raising fresh questions about the controversial closure of I Cook Foods.Leaked report shows it was unlikely the woman ate the caterer's foodI Cook Foods was closed in February 2019 after an elderly woman died in Knox Private Hospital — which the caterer supplied — with listeriosis suspected as contributing to her death.
Professor Sutton was the authority to ultimately sign the closure order for the caterer because of the council's conflict of interest. A letter from the hospital's lawyers to I Cook Foods also says that it had "no evidence of what food products the patient ate" at the hospital. The ABC is not suggesting Mr Sutton had read the now-leaked document or was aware of its content prior to giving evidence at the inquiry. The Knox council inspection was requested by the department.
The leaked document had been the target of Freedom of Information requests by Mr Cook but had yet to be formally released."I have been fighting for this document for two years, and the DHHS is still pretending it does not exist,'' Mr Cook said.