Latham’s Meat Co., a North Jackson restaurant, voluntarily closed its doors for two days in late July after some 30 to 40 people who claimed to have gotten sick from eating barbecue there tested positive for salmonella, according to the Jackson Sun.

Health department officials could not say for sure that the salmonella infection came from Latham’s, according to Steven Bell, the health department’s regional environmental manager.

But owner Paul Latham voluntarily closed the restaurant to give the premises "a real good cleaning," Bell said Friday. Latham also allowed all of his employees to participate in a food safety course at the health department. The health department conducted an inspection at Latham’s in response to the complaints. The Department of Agriculture had also gotten complaints a few days before the health department.

The day it did its inspection, the health department did find "a lot of food" on a display table that was not the correct temperature, Bell said. The food was not hot enough, he added.

Other than that, the health department found no signs of salmonella on equipment and meat it tested. Latham’s employees also tested negative for the salmonella.