NewsWhore
03-19-2010, 05:30 PM
The food poisoning that affected children in several public schools was attributed yesterday to a possible poor handling of the food for the school breakfast program, according to preliminary data on the investigation carried out by the Ministry of Public Health.
The director of the Ministry's Environmental Health Department, Dr Nelson Rodriguez, made this announcement during a press conference, together with Minister of Education Melanio Paredes.
Rodriguez said that after testing 111 samples taken from the schools where the poisoning cases occurred, 3 showed some signs of staphylococci contamination. Another sample, taken at the school in the municipality of Maimon and where the greatest number of cases (43) occurred, showed, in addition, the presence of e.coli bacteria.
He pointed out that after performing the review and the analysis of the installations of the companies that supply the milk and the foods that make up the school breakfast program, they investigators were able to confirm that none of them presented problems of contamination in the production or packing process.
The specialist said that in response to these concerns, the department would begin training for the personnel responsible for handling the breakfast foods. They will also monitor the distribution chain from the production to the warehousing in order to prevent the situation from recurring.
News reports have singled out Ladom supplies as causing the intoxication of the children.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
The director of the Ministry's Environmental Health Department, Dr Nelson Rodriguez, made this announcement during a press conference, together with Minister of Education Melanio Paredes.
Rodriguez said that after testing 111 samples taken from the schools where the poisoning cases occurred, 3 showed some signs of staphylococci contamination. Another sample, taken at the school in the municipality of Maimon and where the greatest number of cases (43) occurred, showed, in addition, the presence of e.coli bacteria.
He pointed out that after performing the review and the analysis of the installations of the companies that supply the milk and the foods that make up the school breakfast program, they investigators were able to confirm that none of them presented problems of contamination in the production or packing process.
The specialist said that in response to these concerns, the department would begin training for the personnel responsible for handling the breakfast foods. They will also monitor the distribution chain from the production to the warehousing in order to prevent the situation from recurring.
News reports have singled out Ladom supplies as causing the intoxication of the children.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)