But the bakery that supplied bread has been ordered to shut shop
After urgently responding to the reports that 20
students from a Pernem school in north Goa were admitted to a hospital
on Saturday morning for suspected food poisoning from consuming the
midday meal, the Goa Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Saturday
evening ruled that there did not appear any significant case of food
poisoning from the initial investigation and report of the Primary
Health Centre (PHC) Pernem Medical officer.
However, a
bakery in the neighbourhood, which supplied bread along with the said
midday meal, was ordered to close down as it was found to be unlicensed
and operating in extremely unhygienic conditions, said Director of FDA
Salim Veljee on Saturday evening.
This was the second
bakery to be shut down by FDA after a bakery was closed down in south
Goa on Friday in the course of the on-going FDA inspection of midday
meal supplies across the State.
Mr. Veljee told
The Hindu
on Saturday evening that a sample of the food had been taken for
analysis and the FDA would have to wait for its outcome before reaching
any conclusion.
Narrating the sequence of events on
Saturday, he said that after receiving a call from the Health officer,
PHC Pernem informing that 19 secondary school students of Sri
Kamleshwari High School, Korgaon, had been admitted to their PHC with
complaints of abdomen pain upon the consumption of midday meal ‘Bhaji –
Pao’ served to them at their school, he rushed his food inspectors to
the school.
The students were admitted around 12 noon
to PHC Pernem for medical attention and after keeping them under
observation all the 19 students were discharged around 2 p.m. the same
afternoon.
The PHC Doctor in-charge also informed Mr.
Veljee that the case did not appear to be of food poisoning as the
students were not manifesting the symptoms of food poisoning.
Instead,
two of the students had fever the day before and they too complained of
the same symptoms. Mr. Veljee said that FDA food safety officers Abel
Rodrigues and Flavia DeSouza visited the PHC and took a statement from
the doctor and thereafter visited the school authorities and obtained a
statement from Headmaster Dharma Shetye who informed them that the
‘Bhaji – pao’ was supplied by Brahmanand Charia SHG (self-help group)
located at Pechawado, Korgaon, Pernem.
The SHG had supplied the said food not only to that school, but also to two other schools.
Both these schools had not reported any such event upon consumption of the same food.
The
samples drawn from the food made available at the school, which was
specifically kept for FDA surveillance purposes by the school
authorities after the incident would be analysed only on Monday, said
Mr. Veljee.
Thereafter, the FDA food safety officers
inspected the SHG premises at Korgaon, Pernem and there were no defects
observed nor any quantity of either the said food or any other raw
foodmaterials were available for lifting for analysis.
The
FDA Director recalled that the same SHG was also inspected by the FDA
Officers on Friday only during their inspection drive and no defects had
been found then either.
In shambles
Thereafter,
the officers visited the bakery from where the bread had been procured
and supplied with the said midday meal and found that the bakery was
really in shambles and un-hygienic and also did not possess any FDA food
safety licence and hence it was ordered to be shut down immediately and
the owner Anita Nimbalkar was directed not to commence any operation
till the bakery was put in total order and licence obtained from FDA.
‘It did not appear to be a food poisoning case as there were no pertinent symptoms’
A sample of the food was taken for analysis; FDA will wait for the report: Veljee
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