When food served at a canteen results in a mass bout of food poisoning, is it due to inexperienced food operators, negligent staff, cost cutting food contractors or insufficient food safety inspections at the facility?

On 24 September, 101 students from SK Chepor in Ipoh fell ill after eating fried chicken and chocolate drinks from the school canteen.

By the Tuesday afternoon, five students were already showing symptoms of food poisoning, such as diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever.

Perak Director of Health Dr Feisul Idzwan Mustapha was notified by the e-notification system at 8 am on Wednesday. By 5 pm, a further 96 cases brought the total number of affected students to 101, and one student was admitted to Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital.

The incident had mobilised the Infectious Disease Control Unit of the Kinta District Health Office to conduct an investigation.

In the reports published, students said the chocolate drink sold at the canteen had a ‘sour’ smell and the fried chicken they were served was undercooked and raw.

Dr Feisul said that the suspected cause of poisoning was Salmonella spp from the suspected undercooked fried chicken and the chocolate drink which had gone off.

He ordered the closure of the school canteen for a fortnight under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983, and that fines were imposed for violations concerning the wearing of accessories while handling food.

When the students noticed the ‘sour’ smell of the chocolate drink, did they still consume the drinks, and did they report it to the school canteen operator, their teachers and the school-head?

Did they do the same with the raw, undercooked chicken?

What was the response of the school operator and the reaction of the teachers and headmistress/headmaster? Did the teaching staff also eat food from the school canteen?

More importantly, how often are food safety and health inspections carried out in government schools? Whose responsibility is food safety and hygiene of school canteens? Is it the head of the school’s responsibility, the Department of Education or the Ministry of Health, or a combination of these authorities?

Cases of dirty school canteens are not new. In the past, we have read several reports of children being warded because of filthy kitchens and dining rooms, dirty toilets, poor quality of food and inadequately trained staff in food preparation. Children have died.

A few weeks earlier, on 7 September, the chairman of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said that food operators who were negligent about food hygiene preparations would have their contracts terminated.

He confirmed that the food operator for Taiping Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) would have its contract rescinded following several complaints from parents about their children falling ill from food poisoning after eating at the school dining hall.

Adding that MARA would not compromise with operators who took food hygiene issues lightly and violated the terms of their contract, Asyraf then shared a post where rotten eggs had been served to students at a MARA school.

Images of a rotten hard-boiled egg served to a student at MRSM in Negeri Sembilan have gone viral on social media, and an accompanying message stated that the boy subsequently suffered from food poisoning.

According to Facebook users, this is not the first time a MRSM student has received food that has gone bad.

One comment on the social media post asked, “If you saw that the eggs were already bad when you were peeling them, how could you still serve them?”

However, some people might also ask, “Why would you still eat the eggs if you saw that they were black, emitted a foul odour, and was obviously rotten?”

Failure to prevent food poisoning happens because the people responsible ignore the strict rules of hygiene, are careless, thoughtless or neglectful, and do not maintain the canteen and kitchen equipment to a high standard.

Interestingly, previous investigations show causes of food poisoning can also be simple ones, like a sickly worker who is told that he risked being sacked if he were to take the day off, and so carries on with food preparation despite being ill.

This is especially important if the sick member of the kitchen staff has diarrhoea, cold, sore-throat, vomiting or a skin infection.

External factors could also be a possible cause.

The food supplier could have delivered food that is contaminated or has passed its sell-by date.

Suspiciously cheap food condemned elsewhere may have slipped into the supply chain.

Food, delivered at the incorrect temperature or at the wrong time, that is not handled properly by the appropriate staff and should otherwise have been rejected.

Failure to prevent food poisoning happens because the people responsible ignore the strict rules of hygiene, are careless, thoughtless or neglectful, and do not maintain the canteen and kitchen equipment to a high standard.

Moreover, stringent inspections, including spot checks by regulatory bodies are important.

On 1 October, Perak Health Committee Chairman A. Sivanesan said legal action would be taken against the canteen operator who had previously received two written warnings from the school administration.

It was also reported that parents can sue the operators for negligence after consuming food sold at school canteens.

More importantly, parents should also sue the school and the ministries involved. This is because the parents had no say in who was granted the contract to operate the school canteen.

Moreover, these three entities had a role to play in the monitoring and enforcement of the hygiene standards.

Sources:

1. Malay Mail: Health authorities: 101 students in Ipoh ill after consuming contaminated fried chicken and chocolate drinks at school canteen
2. New Straits Times: School canteen operator to be charged over food poisoning
3. Bernama: Food poisoning: SK Chepor canteen operator to be charged in court – exco
4. Free Malaysia Today: Parents can sue for negligence over child’s food poisoning, say lawyers

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)