Makati mayor orders all school canteens inspected

MANILA, Philippines — Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. ordered his city officials on Thursday to inspect all public school canteens following a suspected food poisoning that downed six high school students.

Although the six Makati High School students were discharged already, the city government said it would thoroughly probe what was suspected to be food poisoning on Wednesday afternoon.

Binay cited a report of sanitation inspectors, which found out that insecticide products were stored in the same cabinet as kitchen utensils.

The report of Dr. Estella Barrios, health department chief, recommended for the temporary suspension of the school canteen’s sanitary permit after the students fell ill.

“The incident needs to be thoroughly investigated to make sure what had caused their sudden illness,” Binay pointed out.

On Wednesday, six students of the MHS Annex I in Barangay Poblacion were rushed to the Ospital ng Makati as they fell ill after eating food from the school canteen.

The students were discharged after being given oral re-hydration salts at the Ospital ng Makati the same evening with a diagnosis of acute gastritis.

Barrios said the students complained of dizziness, abdominal pain and vomiting after eating lunch.

Three of the students ate burger patties with ketchup from the canteen, while two bought fried eggd and ate them with rice from

home.

Barrios noted that another student recalled not having taken lunch but drank a chocolate drink and mango shake on Tuesday, the day before the poisoning

As standard procedure, the city government’s sanitary inspectors has sent samples of fried egg, ketchup and cooking oil for testing at the Food and Drug Administration.

“We have to wait for the FDA results before making any conclusion, but clearly there was a violation by the canteen operator when they stored insecticides in the same cabinet where they kept kitchen utenstils,” Barrios said.