The Cebu City Health Office closed down the outlet which produced the rice cakes that made 11 students of Hipodromo Elementary School sick after eating them last week.
Cebu City Health Officer Dr. Daisy Villa said the outlet in barangay Duljo Fatima has no sanitation permit, health tag and business permit.
“The area is also not ideal to make rice cakes. Hugaw gyud siya (It’s really dirty),” Villa said.
Villa said the owner has a “sari-sari store” that has permits, but there should be a separate permit for the outlet making the rice cakes.
She said they are still waiting for the lab results from their office to determine if the rice cakes were contaminated or not.
Packed food
Romeo Lisondra, principal of Hipodromo Elementary School, said the 11 students who were brought to the hospital last week are back in school.
Lisondra told reporters that one of their teachers bought packs of rice cake at Carbon Market.
“It was the first time that happened in school. It was not checked by our canteen manager before it was displayed at the school canteen,” he said.
Lisondra said biscuits and other packed foods with the “Sangkap Pinoy” stickers posted on them are sold in the canteen.
Softdrinks are sold only to teachers and adults while fruit juices are sold to students.
Bacteria
Villa also said the water from the water machines at Hipodromo Elementary School is contaminated with E. coli bacteria found in human waste.
Villa advised the parents to give bottled water to their children for their consumption.
Lisondra said the water machines are owned by two teachers in the school and will be pulled out.
For their part, the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU-7) called on the public not to buy unlabeled food to avoid getting sick or poisoned.
RESU chief Reynan Cimafranca issued this call a few days after two-year-old Karl Jade Talingting died.
Unlabeled
The boy was taken to the Lapu-Lapu City Hospital then referred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) after eating spoiled biscuits in an unlabeled pack. He died two days later.
“Those were allegedly sold by the wife of a security guard who works in the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ). We still have to identify where she purchased those biscuits,” Cimafranca told Cebu Daily News.
It was the second time that the wife sold the same food at MEZ 1.
Cimafranca said it is hard to determine the expiration date of food that isn’t labeled.
He said repacked biscuits with no labels are sold in bus terminals and ports.
Aside from Talingting, five other victims who suffered constipation and frequent vomiting after eating the biscuits were discharged from the hospital.
Cimafranca asked the management of MEZ 1 to regulate the vendors outside the establishment and to prohibit the sale of unlabeled food.
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