130 people suffer poisoning in Japan after eating eel

YOKOHAMA: A total of 130 people suffered food poisoning after eating grilled eel dishes, a popular midsummer delicacy in Japan, that were sold last week at a department store in Yokohama, near Tokyo, local health authorities said Monday.

Those affected have reported symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, but most cases were not serious, the health centre of the city of Yokohama said, adding that the lone death among the ill was a woman in her 90s whose exact cause of death is not known, Kyodo news agency reported.

According to the public health centre, the Tokyo-based eel restaurant chain Nihonbashi Isesada sold more than 1,500 dishes of grilled eel as well as bento boxes of grilled eel and rice on Wednesday and Thursday at Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama's Konan Ward.

The health centre said it detected staphylococcus aureus, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea, in the excrement of some of the people who ate the meals.

Many people in Japan eat grilled eel, or unagi, on the midsummer ox days known as "Doyo no Ushi no Hi," honoring an old belief that the delicacy helps beat the heat. One such day fell on Wednesday this year.

-- BERNAMA