Students in Do Luong were poisoned after eating yogurt made by the school itself.

The investigation report of the Food Safety and Hygiene Department of Nghe An province said: 76 casespoisoningOn May 9, in Thuan Son commune, Do Luong district, all were children.kindergartenate yogurt made by the school for lunch. The children in the nursery did not eat yogurt during the afternoon meal and did not show any unusual symptoms. Previously, the children (nursery and kindergarten) had lunch at school and did not show any unusual symptoms.

Emergency care for preschool children with food poisoning. Photo: NA Food Safety Department

Regarding the school's yogurt preparation process: The yogurt is homemade by the teachers (the ingredients for making yogurt are condensed milk, yogurt and filtered well water) and incubated from 5:00 p.m. on May 8, 2023, until 3:30 p.m. on May 9, 2023 for the children to eat. During the preparation process, the yogurt is incubated and stored at room temperature, not in the refrigerator.

Inspection of actual food safety conditions at Thuan Son Kindergarten showed that: At the time of investigation, the facility basically complied with food safety regulations such as clean processing areas, ensuring separation between areas; daily waste collection, tightly covered trash cans; adequate equipment and tools for food preparation and processing, ensuring separation between raw and cooked food; processing staff did not have infectious diseases.

Some of the school's shortcomings at the time of investigation were: Implementing the three-step food inspection regime and storing food samples had some steps that were not in accordance with regulations; processing and preserving homemade yogurt was not guaranteed.

Food samples of yogurt from Thuan Son Kindergarten. Photo: Food Safety Department

Initial assessment of the cause of the food poisoning incident was highly suspected to be related to yogurt. The Food Safety and Hygiene Department sent 05 samples for testing to determine the cause (including 01 yogurt sample - food sample and 04 clinical samples).

It is known that in this food poisoning incident, a total of 267/354 children at Thuan Son Kindergarten ate yogurt for their mid-afternoon meal.

57 cases of children aged 3 to 5 years old admitted to Do Luong District General Hospital with clinical symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, dizziness, dehydration... were given fluid and electrolyte replacement and symptomatic treatment by doctors.

By the morning of May 10, some children were eligible to be discharged from the hospital./.