Unwashed eggs for roti jala cause of food poisoning at Tapah school

Unwashed eggs for making roti jala and not the accompanying dish of chicken curry have been identified as the cause of food poisoning at Sekolah Menengah Sains Tapah, last week.

Perak Health director Datuk Dr Juwita Ghazali said the public health laboratory analysis found that the roti jala (lace pancakes) were contaminated with three types of bacteria, namely Salmonella, Bacillus cereus and E. coli.

"The roti jala were contaminated with bacteria, believed by the maker who did not wash her hands after breaking the egg shells which were tainted with chicken faeces and soil," he told reporters after a meeting of the State Environmental Health Action Plan Committee (SEHAP), Monday.

Dr Juwita said officers from the Batang Padang Health Office carried out an inspection at the home of the roti jala maker in Bidor last Saturday.

"The inspection found that dirty egg containers were reused to place new eggs bought," she said, adding that the roti jala were also sold to others.

The house of the roti jala maker which only reached 48 per cent cleanliness level was sealed for 14 days under Section 11 of Food Act 1983.

On April 2, 43 students and a teacher suffered food poisoning after having roti jala with chicken curry.

READ: Tapah food poisoning: Number of victims rises to 63

However, the number of victims later rose to 63 with 28 of them given outpatient treatment at Tapah Hospital.