The Centre for Food Safety has instructed Danny Catering Service Limited to stop supplying the implicated food and suspend operations on September 12 after 39 people at Shatin Wai Lui Ming Choi Primary School developed symptoms. Ming Pao reported that the suspension is for thorough cleaning and disinfection, staff training in food safety and environmental hygiene, and further sampling.
The suspected cluster involves 37 students and two school staff members. The Centre for Health Protection said they ate a school lunch containing braised chicken leg and macaroni on September 9, then developed abdominal pain and diarrhoea about eight to 22 hours later.
Two students sought medical care but neither was admitted to hospital, and both were in stable condition. The other affected people had mild symptoms and did not seek medical attention.
Officials inspected the school and reviewed its food-storage, distribution and environmental-hygiene arrangements, while collecting food samples for laboratory testing and giving advice on preventing food poisoning. Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff also inspected the supplier’s storage and cooking procedures and environmental hygiene; further food and environmental samples were collected there.
The Centre for Health Protection’s preliminary assessment was that food poisoning was more likely because those affected had eaten the same type of lunch before falling ill. It said the illness might be related to the braised chicken leg and macaroni supplied by Danny Catering Service Limited, but the available account does not establish which food, if any, was responsible.
The Centre for Health Protection and Centre for Food Safety said the investigation was continuing. Laboratory testing and the additional sampling are the next steps in examining the suspected link between the illness, the lunch and the supplier.