“Seaweed salad” is the cause of group food poisoning at school lunch - Yashio Saitama

Recently NHK News On-line reported the following:

給食の集団食中毒 原因は「海藻サラダ」 埼玉 八潮

2020年7月13日 21時51分

埼玉県八潮市で先月、給食を食べた市内の小中学生など3400人余りが下痢や腹痛などの症状を訴えた集団食中毒で、埼玉県は給食の「海藻サラダ」が原因だったことを明らかにしました。

先月、八潮市では給食を食べた市内すべての小中学校の児童生徒のほか教員の半数にあたる、3453人が下痢や腹痛などの症状を訴えたことから、県の保健所は給食が原因の集団食中毒と断定し調べを進めていました。

その結果、子どもたちの検体と先月26日の給食で提供された「海藻サラダ」から、いずれも病原大腸菌「Ｏ7」が、検出されたということです。

県によりますと、各校で給食が提供される前日の25日に、市内の「四季亭」八潮工場で、海藻サラダの材料の海藻ミックスと乾燥わかめを水戻しした際に加熱処理を行っていなかったということです。

八潮市教育委員会によりますと、市内の小中学校の給食の再開のめどは立っておらず来月7日までの1学期の間は給食を再開せず、弁当を持参してもらうことを決めました。

Translation

Last month in Saitama Prefecture Yashio City, over 3,400 students of elementary school and junior high school who ate a school lunch had a group food poisoning with complains of symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal pain; Saitama Prefecture revealed that the "seaweed salad" of the school lunch was the cause.

Last month in Yashio City, 3,453 people, all elementary and junior high school students in the city together with half of the teaching staff who ate school lunch, complained about symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal pain. The prefecture's public health center had confirmed that it was a group food poisoning caused by school lunch and was proceeding with the investigation.

As a result, the pathogenic Escherichia coli "O7" was detected in both the specimens of children and the "seaweed salad" provided at the school lunch last month.

According to the prefecture, on the 25th the day before lunch was provided at each school, in the “Shikitei” Yashio factory in the city, heating treatment had not been performed when the seaweed mix, together with the dried wakame which was a material for seaweed salad, were being soaked.

According to the Yashio City Board of Education, the no prospect of resuming the city's elementary and junior high schools in school lunch might exist until the 7th next month, because the school would not restart school lunch for one semester. It was decided to ask people to bring along their lunch boxes.

              So, the lunch provider has made a mistake in preparing the seaweed salad.