50 Hanoi students hospitalized for food poisoning after field trip

The school in Thanh Xuan District organized the field trip to Canh Buom Xanh Park in Gia Lam District for 915 first and second graders on Tuesday morning.

For lunch, the school had the canteen prepare food, including fried rice, fried chicken, fries, sour soup and cookies, and send them along to the park.

The children had lunch at 11 a.m. and during the trip, they also had their own snacks and drinks prepared by their families aside from drinking bottled water provided by the park.

Around 2 p.m. on Tuesday when they returned to school, several students started to have abdominal pain and vomit while two suffered diarrheas.

Three hours later, dozens of others developed symptoms of vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some also ran a fever.

It was confirmed later by local authorities that a total 50 students had signs of food poisoning by Tuesday evening and all must be admitted to hospitals, including 21 at Bach Mai Hospital, five at Dong Da Hospital, 22 at Construction Hospital, and one each at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital and Saint Paul Hospital.

So far, all of them have been in stable conditions.

According to the police, Green Star Food based in Dong Anh District provided the food for the school’s canteen.

The company reported that on Tuesday morning, they processed the raw food, have it cooked at the school and transferred the meal to the park at 9:45 a.m. by car.

The food was put in stainless steel containers with lids and shields.

Both the school’s canteen and Green Star Food have legal records of food safety.

The Food Safety Department of Hanoi have taken samples of the food served at the student’s lunch and samples of their vomit, as well as of the foods at the park, and sent them to the National Institute of Food Safety for testing.

The school’s canteen has been now suspended.