Food poisoning closes cafeterias at 93 schools

After about 1,700 students showed symptoms of food poisoning at 25 schools in the capital region over the last week, the Education Ministry yesterday ordered CJ Food System, the nation’s largest caterer, to suspend its meal programs at 93 schools around the country.
CJ said in a statement on its Web site that it had offered institutions where it runs cafeterias and the 1,700 caterers that purchase its food supplies the option of suspending those services temporarily. A CJ spokesman told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday evening that 114 of 536 cafeterias had accepted that offer. Five were offering only partial menus of products not likely to be contaminated; 16 were still in negotiations and 401 had taken no action.
The ministry and public health officials said food poisoning symptoms in students were reported at three schools on June 16. On Tuesday, reports of new cases began to increase dramatically; on Thursday, the ministry ordered the suspension of meal services at the 25 schools where outbreaks had been noted. Yesterday, the suspension order was extended to all schools with contracts with CJ. No serious illnesses have been reported among the students who reported food poisoning symptoms.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it may have discovered the specific cause of the outbreak, but not what food products may have been the culprit. Heo Yeong-ju, head of the centers’ epidemiological team, said “It is possible that norovirus was the cause of the outbreak. We will have the final investigation results early next week.” The virus, a common cause of food poisoning, can also be spread easily from person to person.
The Food and Drug Administration, the agricultural, maritime, education and home affairs ministries and local governments will begin hygienic inspections of cafeterias at 10,000 schools around the country Monday. They will also inspect facilities at large food suppliers, including 270 suppliers to CJ Food.
Kim Min-gyu, CJ Food System’s food safety center head, apologized for the problem and the inconvenience caused by the service interruptions. “Because we decided to suspend services for the safety of our customers, please understand the situation and wait for the investigation’s outcome,” he said.
CJ Food System is an affiliate of the CJ Group. It had sales of 618 billion won ($647 million) last year, the largest among food service companies in Korea.
It was also implicated in an outbreak of food poisoning at school cafeterias in 2003, but the precise cause of the sickening of 1,500 students was never found, and the company was not disciplined.
The last wide-ranging inspection of food suppliers at school cafeterias in Korea was conducted in March. Those inspections did not include CJ Food’s logistics center in Gyeonggi province, where some health officials suspect the cause of the outbreak was introduced into food supplies.
Prosecutors also weighed in, announcing a crackdown on unsanitary food handling practices that will run until the end of September. The agency’s headquarters said it had ordered its Seoul office to join the investigation of the recent incidents.
The cafeteria closures were a burden for schools and students. About 80,000 students will have to pack lunchboxes until the problem is found and eliminated.
Hospitals that used CJ Food’s catering services were also concerned. Some said they would buy box meals, but that patients would be greatly inconvenienced.
A nutritionist at a university hospital in Seoul said CJ had prepared meals for 1,000 people, half the total number of patients there. Food for yesterday’s meals had been delivered Thursday, he said, and the hospital had no choice but to use those ingredients for yesterday’s meals. As of today, it has no food supplier. “We don’t know what to do,” the nutritionist said.

by Ser Myo-ja, Kim Jung-soo