Bad ice cream downs 87 people in Bataan

BALANGA CITY—At least 87 residents, most of them children, were taken to hospitals here on Wednesday after they complained of severe stomach pain and suffered from diarrhea after eating ice cream sold by two ambulant vendors in this Bataan capital.

Superintendent Melecio Buslig, city police chief, said police held ice cream vendors Roel Biato and Raffy Lobaton for questioning on Thursday.

Lobaton said he had been selling ice cream for several years and this was the first time that his customers fell sick. He said among the victims was his 11-year-old son.

Buslig said the ice cream, which has the brand name “Central Ice Cream,” was sold in cups and produced by a factory owned by Nestor Rapiz, who was also invited by the police for questioning.

Police said the victims, who are residents of the villages of Cabog-cabog and Tanato, felt stomach pains and experienced diarrhea about four hours after they ate ice cream sold by Biato and Lobaton on Wednesday afternoon.

Police said that as of Thursday, 53 were confined at  Bataan General Hospital, while 27 others were in different hospitals in the city. Buslig said most of the victims were children aged 3 and 4.

Samples of the ice cream eaten by the victims were taken to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City for laboratory examination.

City health office personnel said a team from the Department of Health’s National Epidemiological Center is conducting an investigation to determine the source of food poisoning. Greg Refraccion, Inquirer Central Luzon