recent case of food poisoning in singapore

SEVEN children from Pat’s Schoolhouse have been hospitalized for food poisoning, and another 211 children and seven teachers are ill with related symptoms. They fell ill after eating food from caterer Mum’s Kitchen Catering, whose licence has been temporarily suspended by the National Environment Agency (NEA) pending the outcome of investigations. NEA and the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a joint press statement yesterday that the catering company had been fined for lapses in a food poisoning incident in December last year, when 35 people attending a company function came down with diarrhea and started vomiting.
In this case, the children and teachers from six of the group’s 14 centres have come down with symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. The six centres are in Halifax Road, Lim Ah Pin Road, Whitley Road, Claymore Road, Mount Emily and Jalan Ulu Siglap. The food served in Pat’s Schoolhouse, which has 2,000 children ranging from infants to six-year-olds across its 14 centres, is centrally prepared by Mum’s Kitchen Catering. The children affected by the food poisoning were aged two to six. The school outsourced its food preparation to “enhance operational efficiency and ensure a consistent quality of food across the different centres”, said its senior operations manager Julia Teo.
It has suspended the caterer’s services pending the completion of investigations. Meals are, for the time being, being prepared at the individual schools. On Tuesday, the children had seafood spaghetti with marinara sauce for lunch, and the teachers had mee goreng, or fried noodles. The following day, up to half the children in some classes did not show up, and parents were calling the teachers to say their children were ill.
MOH and NEA conducted joint inspections at the caterer’s premises and found a dirty refrigerator door lining but did not uncover other lapses in the food preparation and storage areas. Mum’s Kitchen Catering has been instructed to disinfect its premises and all items used in the preparation and storage of food. Ms Teo said all parents had been told to monitor their children’s health and to inform the principal if their children came down with symptoms such as prolonged vomiting, diarrhoea or fever.
The operations manager of the catering company, Mr Darren Toh, said the centralised kitchen in Bedok North was sterilised yesterday, and a committee has been set up to look into what happened. He said the lunch menu is prepared by 9.30am daily and delivered in four vehicles within the hour to Pat’s Schoolhouse centres. The caterer has been supplying food to Pat’s Schoolhouse since last July. Mr Toh said: “We are doing our checks now and will find out what happened.” He said the same ingredients also went into the food served to the caterer’s other clients – and no one elsewhere has fallen ill.

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