Vietnamese national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines yesterday announced that it ruled out food poisoning in its meal that was suspected to cause poisoning in a group of Japanese students because they did not eat the meal.

A health center in Japan’s Narita Airport said that it was unnecessary to check food served by the airlines.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said that Japanese passengers showed symptoms of poisoning after having dinner in a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

Representatives from Vietnam Airlines also said in its announcement that quarantine agency in Japan announced the flight code VNA-866 from HCMC to Japan on October 28 had been checked and the food served in the flight was not the cause of poisoning.

The flight later returned Vietnam on the same day.

The last passenger out of 30 Japanese students on the flight who were  taken to hospital in Japan was discharged from hospital on October 29.

After the airlines issued a report on the flight the Vietnamese Prime Minister asked the People’s Committee in HCMC to investigate the poisoning incident information in the flight.

Earlier, the Vietnamese Prime Minister has requested the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to clarify information relating to food poisoning of 34 Japanese tourists returning from the locality on October 28.

The committee was also asked to strictly punish violations of food safety regulations, if any, and report the results to the PM in early November.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said on October 29 that a 264- member delegation of Japan’s KOJO 1024 high school with 251 11 th graders joined a tour of HCM City from October 24-27. The tour was co-organised by Japan’s JTB Corporation and JTB-TNT Vietnam Limited Company.

According to JTB-TNT Vietnam Limited Company, on October 27 evening, the delegation had a buffet dinner at the five-star New World Saigon Hotel before taking on a Vietnam Airlines flight back to Tokyo from Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 00:35 on October 28 (Vietnam time).

Some 34 members of the delegation experienced vomiting after the plane landed at 7:45 a.m the same day, and were admitted to local hospitals. Late on October 28, 33 of them were discharged from the hospitals.

The Japanese side has yet to make any conclusion of the cause of the incident as they are waiting for the results of several tests.

They asked JTB-TNT Vietnam Limited Company to collect the food safety certificate of the New World Saigon Hotel and samples of eaten foods for testing.

SGGP/VNA