Parents' 'Worries' Over Mass Food Poisoning Incident
Keeping Children Home and Checking Menus Daily
Government Conducts Hygiene Inspections at Kindergartens and Daycare Centers Nationwide
[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Jeong Hae-yul (34, pseudonym), a parent living in Incheon, is deeply worried following the recent food poisoning incident at Kindergarten A in Ansan City. She has two children aged 6 and 4 who attend kindergarten and daycare, respectively. With growing anxiety, Jeong has started meticulously checking the food her children eat at their facilities every day. Still uneasy, she is considering preparing separate snacks and lunchboxes at least during the summer season.
As cases of mass food poisoning at childcare institutions such as kindergartens in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and daycare centers in Busan continue to emerge, parents’ concerns are intensifying. The overlapping worries of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and food poisoning have led some parents to decide not to send their children to daycare or kindergarten for the time being. Some have even stopped using childcare services altogether. Parent Ji Sun-young (34, pseudonym) said, "With concerns about both COVID-19 and food poisoning, we decided to provide home care until our child enters kindergarten," adding, "It seems other parents around me are facing similar dilemmas."
Childcare workers are equally troubled. Although they are paying much more attention to hygiene than usual, it is not enough to ease parents’ anxieties. Requests for photos of the day’s meals and demands not to feed children certain foods have flooded childcare centers, putting staff on edge. After posts circulated claiming that Kindergarten A in Ansan, where the food poisoning incident occurred, had been previously caught in audits for corruption, many parents have started scrutinizing the past records of the childcare institutions where they send their children.
Online communities such as local mom cafes are also filled with posts from parents expressing their fears about the recent food poisoning incident.
In response, the government has launched hygiene inspections of meal services at kindergartens and daycare centers nationwide. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will conduct hygiene management inspections of food ingredients at about 8,000 kindergartens and 35,000 daycare centers across the country throughout this month. Based on the inspection results, they plan to develop measures to improve meal hygiene.
Meanwhile, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli infection at Kindergarten A in Ansan, where the mass food poisoning occurred, has reached 60. Among them, 11 people (9 children and 2 family members) are currently hospitalized. There are 16 suspected cases (14 children and 2 family members) showing symptoms of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), commonly known as "hamburger disease," with 3 of them undergoing dialysis treatment. At Daycare B in Busan, as of the 3rd, 39 individuals have shown symptoms of food poisoning. Eleven children who complained of high fever and abdominal pain have been hospitalized.
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