Epic Burgers and Waffles is back in business — minus the cronut burger — but Le Dolci bakery, supplier of the maple-bacon jam that topped the ballyhooed CNE dish, is shut down.

The focus of the investigation has shifted to Le Dolci since Tuesday’s confirmation that the sauce was the source of an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that, at last count, had affected 223 people.

“New lab results indicate that the maple bacon jam, which is one component of the cronut burger, is the cause of food-borne illness at the CNE,” Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health said in a statement Tuesday. “We have ensured the contaminated product is not served.”

Toronto Public Health is testing the maple syrup, bacon, brown sugar and water in the jam to determine which ingredient in particular was contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus toxin. Friday’s laboratory results found the toxin in samples of Epic Burgers and Waffles’ cheeseburger-doughnut-croissant hybrid. The new results are expected by the end of the week.

Le Dolci, which also supplied the cronut bun, is not in operation while Public Health, which continues to update Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food, keeps looking for the root cause of the illness.

“We’ve agreed with Public Health to cease all production and special orders until we have further information,” Le Dolci said in a statement.

A sign on the door of the customized cupcake bakery near Trinity Bellwoods Park mentioned a preplanned summer vacation set to last until Sept. 3 — the day after the CNE closes.

An employee who answered the door said she couldn’t comment except to say Le Dolci was “co-operating,” and the timing of the vacation had nothing to do with the investigation.

Repeated calls to Le Dolci’s owner, Lisa Sanguedolce, went unreturned, and no one came to the door of her home when a Star reporter visited in the afternoon.

Posts to the company’s website earlier in August about the cronut burger were also taken down, and a note was added on its Facebook page thanking “all of our loyal customers, friends and family for their support and kind words.”

In a statement emailed to the media, Le Dolci said it’s “very concerned about what has happened” and it takes food safety “very seriously.”

Jam samples from both Epic and Le Dolci contained the bacterial toxin.

The CNE burger joint voluntarily closed Aug. 20, but reopened Tuesday morning with Public Health’s stamp of approval.

“Epic has been allowed to reopen as long as they don’t serve the maple bacon jam from the supplier,” said Public Health’s Jennifer Veenboer, who added the vendor must comply with food safety requirements. Inspectors found refrigeration problems at Epic unrelated to the outbreak.

In a statement, Epic said the company “decided to remove the Cronut Burger from our menu” and “will no longer do business with the aforementioned supplier.”

It’s not clear whether the contamination began at Le Dolci or somewhere earlier in the supply chain.

Staphylococcus aureus would have originated on human or pig skin, said Keith Warriner, professor of food safety and quality assurance at the University of Guelph, who is not involved in the Toronto Public Health investigation.

He added that while the bacterium itself is killed at high temperatures, the toxin — which is what causes the illness — is heat-resistant.

“If you leave Staphylococcus at room temperature, it produces (a) toxin,” said Warriner.

Aside from leaving jam ingredients at room temperature at some point in the food production chain, Warriner notes other causes could be poor sanitation and “the suicidal thing of adding bacon to maple syrup – if that’s what they did,” because the bacteria could thrive in nutrient-rich syrup.

The lineup was shorter than usual Tuesday in front of the reopened Epic. The vendor’s first customer was CNE general manager David Bednar, who gorged on a “classic American smashburger” before a scrum of reporters.

“It tastes great,” he said. “I’m not going to say I’m never going to get sick again, but I don’t feel sick right now.”

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Bednar said patrons could feel safe wolfing down the other freak-food selections on Epic’s menu.

“The booth’s been sanitized, the staff has been retrained.”

Epic representative Christian Reilly also assured customers they had nothing to worry about.

“This is one of the safest places to eat here in Toronto at this time, especially with all the focus on us,” he said, noting Epic now relies on only one food distributer.

“Working with an independent company for something like a pastry may not be as reliable as we originally thought it would be.”

Peter Bouhs, 45, and his son Jason, 8, had no qualms about indulging in the vendor’s gluttonous offerings, despite the recent bad publicity.

“It must be very clean now, with public health and the media watching,” said Peter, who chose to pig out on the Krispy Kreme doughnut burger. “It’s really good, actually. I think it’s been too soon to tell if I’ll get sick, but hopefully not.”

Jason, who shared his burger with his dad, insisted nothing tasted awry about it. “I don’t think I’ll get sick, because no one got sick here last year.”

Trevor Mason, 25, who also ordered the Krispy Kreme burger, was confident about Epic’s safety standards.

“Things slip through the cracks. If it was the meat, I’d be concerned, because you can check for that. But when it’s a jam, it’s really difficult to tell.”

Still, Mason admitted he felt he was taking a slight risk by eating the burger.

“Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow,” he joked. “I guess this is my version of skydiving.”

Many CNE-goers were skittish about eating at Epic so soon after it was shut down.

“If the jam was tainted, something else could be,” said Nicola Myers, 39, who travelled to the Ex from St. Thomas, Ont., adding that the business should close down.

After interviewing 150 of the 223 ill fair-goers who contacted Public Health after eating at the CNE between Aug. 16 and 20, the agency found the only common food consumed was the cronut burger.