Roorkee: The food safety department, after lifting two food samples from a hostel mess of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R), has issued notice to the institute on Friday. About 30 students had fallen ill after having dinner on Wednesday. All students are safe and have been discharged from the institute's hospital after receiving treatment for two nights. The doctors at the hospital said the students are safe.
Reacting to Wednesday's incident of alleged food poisoning of the students, the institute's authorities said that it could be a case of specific food allergy and that there was nothing wrong with the food served to the students.
According to reports, 28 students of post-graduate and PhD (research) programmes, who lived in Cautley Bhawan (hostel) of the institute, had dinner in the hostel mess on January 25 but soon started complaining of stomach ache and dehydration. They were rushed to the hospital for treatment.
“Some students had eaten rice and a sweet corn dish specially prepared on their demand in the mess. Only 28 students had fallen ill after eating that dish. Doctors told us that it could be a case of specific food allergy. Food served to the students was fine. We will probe the matter,” said dean (students’ welfare) D K Nauriyal.
Taking cognizance of the incident, which was reported on social media, the food safety department inspected the mess and lifted two food samples and issued a notice to the institute under different sub-clauses of section 31 of the Food Safety & Standard Act 2006.
“The hostel mess is being run without food safety licence. We have given one month's time to the institute to respond to the notice. We have sent the food samples for testing at a Rudrapur-based lab,” Santosh Kumar Singh, food safety officer, told TOI.
This was the second incident of food poisoning at the institute in the past three years when the food safety department issued notice to the management. In August 2013, over 250 students of Rajendra Bhawan (hostel) complained of food poisoning after having breakfast from the hostel canteen.
“The food safety department had also imposed a fine on the institute for not following food safety norms,” said Santosh Kumar Singh.
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