More than 180 students at National Chia-Yi Senior Commercial Vocation School ended up in hospital emergency rooms in Chiayi on Wednesday and yesterday with suspected food poisoning, and two who were severely ill have been hospitalized.
The students began experiencing dizziness, nausea and diarrhea after lunch on Wednesday, Chia-Yi Christian Hospital said in a report to the Chiayi Public Health Bureau on Wednesday afternoon, which led to the bureau taking samples of the lunch for testing.
Students continued to go to emergency rooms yesterday morning — 103 at Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, 51 at St Martin de Porres Hospital and others went to hospitals in Chiayi County.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi City Government
An initial inspection did not turn up any problems with the ingredients, production or transportation of the lunch or the school, bureau Food Safety Section head Chang Yu-chang (張育彰) said yesterday.
The school outsources the lunches to a catering company, which provides large containers for the various dishes, which are then served to the students, Chang said.
Wednesday’s lunch included fried tofu, bok choy, scrambled eggs with tomato, fried chicken, shredded pork in soy sauce, corn soup and white rice, he said.
The catering company also provides lunches to three other senior high and vocational schools and none of them reported any problems with Wednesday’s meals, Chang said.
The bureau yesterday morning collected more samples from the catering company and the school and asked the Centers for Disease Control to conduct an epidemiological investigation to try to identify the cause of the students’ illness and prevent a reoccurrence.
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