SEOUL - South
Korea's largest food distributor, CJ Food System,
said Friday it will suspend the supply of food
ingredients to 1,700 cafeteria operators around
the nation in the aftermath of an outbreak of mass
food poisoning in school cafeterias this week.
The decision came a day after the company
halted operation of its 536 cafeterias in schools
and companies nationwide.
According to the
education authorities' latest tally, the number of
students who have shown symptoms of food poisoning
such as nausea, diarrhea, stomach aches and fever
since last Friday
reached 1,709 in 25 schools in
Gyeonggi Province, including Seoul.
Because of the possibility that the food
poisoning occurred from contaminated pork, tests
were made for coliform bacterium, the results of
which will be available later in the day, and
those for other kinds of bacteria will be
available by Sunday morning, the company said.
"Until the reason for the outbreak is
found by the Korea Food and Drug Administration
(KFDA) and other related authorities, we will
suspend our businesses in cafeteria operation and
food ingredients distribution altogether," the
company said in a statement.
"The results
of the epidemiological study of the food poisoning
will likely be available within two weeks," it
added.
In a hastily convened meeting of
government officials earlier in the day, Prime
Minister Han Myeong-sook affirmed her government's
resolve to ensure "the government will keep such
an incident from recurring by closely examining
the cause of the outbreak." The meeting was also
attended by heads of the education, agriculture,
welfare and maritime ministries. "We will call
those responsible to account and overhaul the
system, if needed," she added.
The KFDA
plans to revoke CJ Food System's business license,
and the Seoul metropolitan government will issue
orders to close its branch offices if the company
is confirmed to be responsible for the outbreak,
education officials said.
