16 students fall sick after eating mid-day meal at school

At least sixteen students of a primary school at Porvorim near here took ill today due to suspected food poisoning after eating their mid-day meal.
While five of them remained admitted at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), the rest were discharged after they were treated at a Public Health Centre, a senior Education department official told PTI.
The condition of the five students is stable now.
The students started vomiting soon after having the meal at the government-run primary school, he said.
Meanwhile, the State Education Director Gajanan Bhat said his department has initiated inquiry into the incident.

Director of the Department of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Salim Velji said samples of food were being collected, and they would soon be sent for analysis.

He said FDA has asked the self help group (SHG), providing mid-day meal to the school, to stop their services till further order.
"FDA had in the past issued instruction to all schools to collect two samples of mid-day meal on a regular basis and store them in refrigerator.
"This school too has stored two samples of the food, which were collected before the students were served the meal. The tests would be conducted on these two samples as well as the food found in plates of the students," he said.