12 test positive for salmonella in spring roll case

Kaohsiung, April 6 (CNA) At least 12 of 140 people who fell ill after eating a Kaohsiung food stall's spring rolls have tested positive for salmonella, the city's Department of Health said in a statement Monday.

In a suspected food poisoning case that has already led to the food vendor being fined NT$1.44 million (US$45,000), the department said Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital reported admitting multiple patients on Saturday and Sunday, and as of Monday, 12 of them had tested positive for salmonella.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, 140 people had sought treatment at 10 hospitals around the city after eating the spring rolls of the Zhengyi Market stall in Lingya District.

Thirty-one were still hospitalized, 18 were in emergency rooms (with 10 waiting to be admitted and eight under observation), and 91 had been treated and sent home, the department said.

No information was available on how many patients were treated at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, leaving it unclear what percentage tested positive for salmonella.

The department said it had taken samples of ingredients from the stall to see if any were contaminated but had yet to receive the test results back.

The health department, meanwhile, fined the vendor an additional NT$1.08 million after imposing an initial NT$360,000 fine, citing violations of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.

It said that based on a comprehensive epidemiological assessment of patients' medical histories, food consumption records, and some preliminary test results, as well as the detection of pathogenic bacteria, "the case has been determined to constitute food poisoning."

The vendor was also ordered Sunday to suspend operations for seven days because it posed a significant food safety risk, and local prosecutors have also begun to investigate the case for possible criminal offenses.

The problem first came to light Saturday after a customer posted on social media that six family members had begun to experience stomach pain, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms within four hours of eating spring rolls from a stall in Zhengyi Market.

Salmonella is a bacterium that causes gastrointestinal illness and fever.