Nguyễn Hùng Long, Deputy Director of Food Administration under the Ministry of Health, visits a victim of the food poisoning incident involving Cô Băng Bakery at Long Khánh General Hospital. — VNA/VNS Photo Lê Thị Xuân

ĐỒNG NAI — The Health Department of Đồng Nai has held an urgent meeting to discuss tightening the supervision of food facilities in the province, following the mass food poisoning incident involving Cô Băng Bakery.

Trịnh Bửu Lễ, Director of the Medical Centre of Long Khánh, revealed that there are currently 132 bakeries in the city, but only one-fifth of them have business licences.

The recent food poisoning incident involving Cô Băng Bakery is not the first serious food poisoning incident to occur in the city. A similar incident took place in June 2021, leading to 250 people being rushed to the hospital.

Fortunately, the cases were mild and no fatalities were reported.

"Regarding the recent food poisoning incident, the owner of Cô Băng Bakery has covered the medical expenses of all the victims," said Lễ.

According to the Food Safety Department of Đồng Nai, 4,100 food facilities in the province were inspected in the first four months of 2024, of which about 4,000 came up to standard whereas 18 were found to violate food safety regulations and were imposed a total fine of VNĐ196 million (US$7,700).

Their main violations included not complying strictly with the three-step food inspection rule and operating with expired food safety licences.

Võ Thị Ngọc Lắm, Deputy Director of the Health Department of Đồng Nai, emphasised the need for enhanced cooperation among agencies in supervising food providers.

She urged commune-level officials to promptly report any violations, or signs of violations, to district authorities to prevent further food poisoning incidents.

At the meeting, representatives from districts and cities highlighted the difficulties in supervising small-scale food facilities, in particular street food vendors.

They noted that enforcement actions, primarily at the commune level, often involve warnings rather than administrative penalties.

By May 7, seven days after the food poisoning incident involving Cô Băng Bakery, 547 people had been hospitalised, of which 466 recovered and were discharged from the hospital, while 81 were still being treated.

In the most serious case, a young child, is showing signs of improvement and is expected to be taken off the ventilator in the next few days, while the health of the other patients hospitalised has stabilised.

Testing of 29 patient samples revealed that 16/29 samples were positive for both Salmonella and E. coli bacteria, while 9/29 samples were positive for E. coli bacteria.

Testing of food samples taken from Cô Băng Bakery at the time of the poisoning incident showed that 4/8 food samples were positive for Salmonella.

On April 30, Cô Băng Bakery on Trần Quang Diệu Street, Xuân Bình Ward, Long Khánh City, sold more than 1,000 pork bread sandwiches to customers.

The following morning many customers began to experience diarrhoea and vomiting and were admitted to the Long Khánh General Hospital.

At the time of the investigation following the incident, Cô Băng Bakery did not have either a business licence or a food safety license. — VNS