SINGAPORE: There were 187 gastroenteritis cases linked to ready-to-eat (RTE) meals distributed as part of Total Defence Day, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said on Tuesday (Mar 4).

Ms Fu was responding to parliamentary questions on food poisoning cases after some students from the School of the Arts (SOTA) ate the RTE meals and fell ill. 

Authorities said on Feb 19 that 20 SOTA students had developed gastroenteritis symptoms and preliminary findings showed that it was an "isolated incident".

The total number of verified gastroenteritis cases has grown to 187 as of Mar 3. Of the total, 184 were from schools, two were from Active Ageing Centres and one from a public agency.

This constituted about 0.16 per cent of the participants, said Ms Fu.

"All affected individuals have received the necessary medical attention and have since recovered. None were hospitalised," she added.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has collected samples of the meals for testing. The tests did not find any foodborne pathogens, Ms Fu said.

SFA and the Ministry of Health (MOH) are conducting a comprehensive investigation of this incident, and SFA will take the necessary corrective and enforcement actions if any lapses are detected, she said.

The RTE meals were originally intended to be distributed to over 100,000 students and teachers from more than 90 schools as part of this year’s Food Resilience Preparedness Programme (FRPP), an initiative led by SFA.

Beyond the schools, it had also planned to work with AIC to distribute the meals to seniors at active ageing centres across the island, with over 8,000 seniors across 111 centres taking part.

The meals were developed by SATS for public consumption during national emergencies. Leveraging its experience in producing army combat rations, SATS designed these meals to be stored without refrigeration and eaten at room temperature, and to have a shelf life of up to eight months.

The RTE distribution was originally scheduled to take place from Feb 15 to Feb 28.

Following reports of gastroenteritis, government agencies decided on Feb 20 to pause the FRPP until investigations on the SOTA cases were concluded.

At the same time, authorities also contacted other recipient institutions to check if there were other cases of related illness. 

Replying to questions from MP Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong) and MP Dennis Tan (WP-Hougang) about the causes of the reported gastroenteritis, the extent of the meals contaminated and if penalties will be imposed against SATS, Ms Fu said that joint investigations are ongoing.

She added that SFA inspected SATS’ premises on Jan 23, prior to the start of the FRPP. The premises were found to be clean and no food safety violations were detected. SATS had also put in place additional measures for FRPP.

Each meal produced under the FRPP was individually tested for leaks. An SFA-accredited laboratory also conducted sample microbiological testing to ensure food safety.

MPs also asked if microbiological and shelf-life studies were required by SFA under the FRPP and whether there are plans to introduce more stringent checks or audits.

Ms Fu said that SATS, like all SFA-licensed establishments, is required to comply with food safety requirements and subjected to food safety inspections.

They have to ensure that food preparation areas and workflows are set up in a way that prevents cross-contamination between raw and cooked food.

There should also be systems to ensure cleanliness and prevent pest infestation. Food workers have to be certified with food safety training.

Ms Fu agreed with MPs that the government needs to restore public confidence in the RTE meals, but said that it is too early to state the steps to take as the investigation is ongoing.

"SFA will conduct an after action review to draw and learn from the lessons of this episode. SFA will continue to engage stakeholders, including schools, food businesses and community partners on our FRPP," she said.

On further questioning from MPs about food safety testing and the current investigations, Ms Fu said that it is important to learn from this incident so that the FRPP programme can "evolve" to be more robust than before.

"I think that we are working as quickly as we can. In the meantime, we have suspended this programme," she said.

"We have to learn and take positive lessons from this programme. How do we get Singapore to be ready to be resilient to disruption ... What if we lack the facilities to cook food? How can we continue to provide nutritious food to the population in large numbers and in a way that is palatable to the population? This is not, in no means, a small undertaking."