Six students at two schools under the same system in Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi were hospitalized on Friday and 20 others suffered stomach pain, persistent defecation and vomited after all of them had had school meals the day before.

At Pascal Elementary and Middle School, 802 boarding students had lunch supplied by Viettinmex Vietnam Development and Service Trading Co., Ltd and afternoon snacks including Nabati cheese wafers and sweet mung bean soup.

At around 5:00 pm Friday, eight students exhibited symptoms of stomach pain and vomiting.

Five of them received care at home under the local medical centers’ monitoring while three others were treated at hospital with diagnosis of intestinal infection.

At the time of the authorities’ inspection, Pascal Elementary and Middle School's meal suppliers presented all legal papers as prescribed and the school kitchen's catering service was arranged according to a one-way process to ensure food safety regulations.

According to the preliminary investigation, the allegedly spoiled food was the basa fish fillet fried in butter, which was on the students' lunch tables on Thursday.

At Isaac Newton Elementary School, 1,533 boarding students had lunch supplied by Mat Troi Lon Co., Ltd and afternoon snacks provided by Gia Bao Bakery Co., Ltd.

At 7:30 am Friday, 15 students submitted school leaves due to stomach pain, vomiting and persistent defecation.

Three of them had to be hospitalized and their health has returned to stable conditions.

At the time of the authorities’ inspection, Mat Troi Lon Co., Ltd produced all required papers related to the catering business, while Gia Bao Bakery Co., Ltd failed to show required food testing certificates for its sausage-filled pizza and a food safety certificate for the production of the dish, which had been served as afternoon snacks at Isaac Newton Elementary School on Thursday and suspected as the contaminated food.

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