Another Mass Food Poisoning Case, This Time in a Pre-school in Toa Payoh

Just as you prepare to welcome the new year and have forgotten about the series of mass food poisoning incidents that happened last year, another one just occurred.

While no one was hospitalized, this is still disturbing for it happened in a pre-school, and previous mass food poisoning incidents have revealed that they’re all due to human error.

Here’s what happened.

14 Pre-school Students Fell Ill after Consuming Catered Food

Sparkletots is a child care and kindergarten school managed by the PCF.

It provides child-care services for kids below 6 years old, and also kindergarten education for kids between 5 and 6.

The centre in Toa Payoh East initially had an in-house cook before 15 November 2018; however, after he or she has quit, the centre engaged a caterer for the kids’ lunch instead.

According to reports, on Friday (1 February 2019), 14 kids between between the age of three and six years old in PCF Sparkletots at Block 45 Toa Payoh East started to vomit and have diarrhea at around 3:30 p.m., about four hours after they were served the catered lunch.

However, 40 students had the same lunch, so only about 35% of them were affected.

Two of the kids were confirmed to have food poisoning, one was suspected with food poisoning, and three were diagnosed with stomach flu (which could be food poisoning, too). It’s unknown what the other eight kids’ conditions were.

None of them were hospitalized.

PCF then contacted their parents and are monitoring the situation. The matter has been reported to Early Childhood Development Agency and the Ministry of Health.

Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said AVA and the Ministry of Health (MOH) are now investigating the matter, and considered it an outbreak of gastroenteritis (i.e. food poisoning).

Unlike previous incidents, PCF did not reveal the name of the caterer.

Previous Food Poisoning Also Involved Kids

Lest you’ve forgotten, out of the numerous mass food poisoning incidents last year, one of them involved kids as well.

Back then, 131 kids and teachers who were attending a learning camp fell ill after consuming catered food prepared by FoodTalks Caterer & Manufacturer, located at Shimei East Kitchen in Bedok.

National Environmental Agency (NEA), Ministry of Health (MOH) and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) declared it an outbreak of gastroenteritis.

None of the 131 people has been hospitalized.

The three authorities had gone to the caterer’s premises to conduct an inspection, and food handlers were sent for stool screening while food and environmental samples were retrieved for testing.

Authorities “Angry” at Food Poisoning Cases

After the investigations into the Spize food poisoning concluded, NEA wasn’t happy: the director-general for environmental public health said: “We are angry and upset, and it is unbecoming that the operators are not taking (food hygiene) seriously… It is really unbecoming that our operators are not taking this seriously.”

Let’s just say that it doesn’t take long before some operators allegedly become complacent, no?