Adulterated Flour Leads To Mass Food Poisoning In Delhi; Over 400 Fall Sick: What Happened
At least 400 residents of Kalyanpuri area of East Delhi were hospitalised on Tuesday night after they suffered from vomiting and loss of consciousness.
The doctors suspect that they fell sick after eating adulterated kuttu ka atta or buckwheat.Kuttu ka atta is considered pious and is commonly used instead of other grains for fast-special meals during the festivities of Navratri in India.
What is the incident?
The patients who complained of food poisoning began thronging the Lal Bahadur Shahtri Hospital in the area at around 11 PM. While several patients were vomiting, many others lost consciousness. However, no life loss has been reported so far.
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Upon investigation, all the patients with food poisoning symptoms claimed that they had eaten kuttu ka atta for dinner.?Delhi Police has said that they have not received any complaints in the matter, however, they will investigate it to find out the culprit behind the mass food poisoning. The cops said that they will trace the mill that sold the adulterated buckwheat flour.
Similar incidents in the past
This is not the first time such an incident has been reported. In October 2020, as many as 32 people fell ill after consuming food preparations made from kuttu ka atta in Roorkie, Uttarakhand. The patients reportedly ate foods prepared with the said flour that led to them being hospitalised with symptoms of dizziness and vomiting.
At the time,?Santosh Kumar, the Food Safety Officer, had assured that the supply chain of the grain will be traced back to the source and all the remaining stock will be destroyed.
"We got information from a government hospital that several people had been admitted after they ate food made of kuttu flour. We have reached out to the police and the shopkeepers to find the suppliers and found the kuttu was brought in through trains that had supplied the main grain market. We have taken samples of the grain out of which the flour was made and are in the process of destroying all the remaining stocks," Santosh Kumar said in a statement.
In 2011, over 200 people had fallen sick in Delhi after eating adulterated kuttu ka atta.
