Worm found in food, 7 suffer food poisoning

COIMBATORE: Seven people from Kuniamuthur, in Coimbatire, were admitted in the government hospital, Coimbatore, with complaints of food poisoning on Sunday. All seven of them say they had gone together to a chaat outlet where a worm was found in a plate of mushroom fry. The food safety department raided the chaat outlet on Monday afternoon.

The seven of them, claimed that they had been suffering from severe diarrhea and bouts of vomiting since Sunday evening. "We went to the chaat outlet, attached to a departmental storethat sells products at lower prices, at around 7 am and ordered mushroom fry and cauliflower fry," said M Ilyas, a goldsmith from Kuniamuthur. "We found a worm in our plate of mushroom fry and pointed it out to the chaat stall staff," he said.

The manager of the stall reportedly apologized and offered to replace the plate with another dish. "He however kept insisting that the worm could not have come from his materials or from his stall," said M Shahjehan. "He then told us that we could take back our money and go, but he did not admit that his materials were inhygienic," he added.

The men claimed that hardly one-and-half hours after they consumed the dish, a few of them began suffering from diarrhea and nausea. "We are only feeling better now," said Ilyas.

The food safety department, suspect the food poisoning to have been triggered due to the use of spoilt mushroom or cauliflower, raided the canteen and the store. The stall in the canteen was reportedly shut down on Monday. "The chaat stall was shut down and wiped clean, not giving us an opportunity to collect samples of their raw materials," said designated food safety officer R Kathiravan. tnn"The patients admitted have also chosen not to file a complaint with the police or the food safety department," he said.

However, there is another suspicion that the whole incident might be motivated. " The chances of that big a worm being found in a dish, which involves cutting the vegetable into such small pieces and frying it, is small," said a food scientist Srijanani Sundararajan.