Following cases of food poisoning at the School of the Arts ( SOTA ) arising from the meals, a national preparedness initiative that involves ready-to-eat meals was temporarily halted on Thursday ( Feb 20 ).
The Singapore Food Agency ( SFA ), in a joint statement released on Thursday morning, stated that it” will pause the Food Resilience Preparedness Programme as a precautionary measure until investigations on the SOTA gastroenteritis cases are concluded.
CNA first reported on Wednesday about the hepatitis cluster at SOTA.
After eating the meals, 20 students in total developed symptoms like vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea.
In order to be able to serve the ready-to-eat dishes to more than 100, 000 students and teachers from more than 90 schools, the program led by SFA was originally intended to be distributed as part of this week’s Food Resilience Preparedness Programme.
With over 8, 000 seniors taking part in 111 centers across the island, it had planned to work with AIC to spread the foods to seniors.
Exams created the meals for public consumption during regional emergencies. Exams developed these foods to be stored without refrigeration, consumed at room temperature, and have a shelf life of up to eight weeks using its expertise in producing military conflict meals.
As part of Exercise SG Ready, which simulates problems like power outages and food interruptions under the Total Defense symbol, SOTA students were given the dishes on Tuesday.  ,
The affected individuals form about 1 per share of the total number of students in the class who consumed the ready-to-eat foods, said SFA, MOE, AIC and SATS on Wednesday.