City health says grilled squid caused summit food poisoning

Cebu City Health officials have finally concluded that the delay in serving the half-cooked grilled squid prepared by the food handlers of Majestic Catering Services had caused the hospitalization of the 95 performers who were hired to entertain the delegates of the 12th ASEAN Summit in Lapu-Lapu City last month.

Durinda Macasocol, assistant head of the Cebu City Health's epidemiology surveillance and statistics unit, said laboratory findings showed that the cold grilled squid was contaminated with vibrio parahaemolyticus bacterium.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is in the same family as those that cause cholera. It lives in brackish saltwater and causes gastrointestinal illness in humans.

When ingested, such kind of germs causes watery diarrhea often with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills. Eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters, infects most people.

Although they already started complaining of abdominal pains, the musicians, dancers and fashion models still managed to perform their numbers during the gala dinner that President Arroyo hosted for the ASEAN leaders at Shangri-La Hotel.

Majestic served lechon, grilled squid, danggit, crab soup and banana fritters to some 300 performers for lunch and spring rolls, beef szechuan, chicken mushroom soup and fresh fruits for dinner.

" Kinahanglan g'yod nga ang mga sinugba nga nukos i-serve g'yod dayon samtang init pa aron dili ma-contaminate sa kagaw," Macasocol said.

It was learned that the grilled squid was prepared in Cebu City in the morning and was brought to Shangri-La, but was only served at noon.

Food handlers and other personnel of Majestic Catering Services were required to undergo a food handling reorientation seminar.

It was recommended that the organizers of activities who will hire food caterers must choose those caterers who are based near their venue or they will provide a place where the squids are to be grilled so these could be served right away while these are still hot.

While the incident took place in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu City health officer Fe Cabugao conducted an investigation about it to determine the real cause of the incident upon the order of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña explained that he ordered the city health officials to assist in the investigation of the incident because the Majestic Catering Services is based in Cebu City and he does not want such to happen again in the future. - Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV