Rava, oil past expiry date caused food poisoning: officials

The departmental outlet was raided by health officials and over 56 kg of expired food items were seized

The sale of rava and cooking oil after their expiry period led to food poisoning that affected 107 security personnel at Velankanni on Sunday, health officials said.

A premier department store had indulged in such an unfair trade practice, according to the offficials. The rava and cooking oil were used in the preparation of ‘kichdi’ that led to food poisoning.

A team of health officials constituted by two joint directors, four deputy directors, and State-level officers had arrived here on Sunday to take stock of the situation. Based on the food chart deduced from the inputs given by patients, it was ‘kichdi’ that was suspected to have triggered the food poisoning.

Based on the inputs, the team inspected the pack of rava and cooking oil, both of which were way past their expiry date.

Following this, Krishna Stores, the departmental outlet in question, was raided by the health officials and over 56 kg of expired food items, with their expiry dates way past one and half years and short expiries were seized.

Speaking to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, a State-level officer laid to rest assumptions that super-chlorination was the cause of illness. “Super-hlorination would only cause stomach ache and discomfort, but not diarrhoea. The symptoms pointed to other causes, when we started investigating,” the official said.

“In addition, the cooking oil that was supplied on August 28 has a post-dated manufacturing date of September 1,” the official said. According to him, it was necessary for the public to be vigilant of the purchases made.

The men from Nagapattinam police force, Tamil Nadu Battalion Force, Railway Protection Force were among those who had taken ill and were admitted to three different hospitals on Sunday.