400 suffer from food poisoning after eating lunch in Mikkeli schools

More than 400 students and staff members of different schools in Mikkeli, a city in eastern Finland were diagnosed with food poisoning symptoms after eating lunch at the schools on Wednesday, said the city in a press release on Friday afternoon.

Students and staff of all the schools, excepting two suffered from the food poisoning after eating tortillas in the their school lunch.

Only the students and staff of Urpola and Otava schools were not diagnosed with the symptoms as the two schools prepared different menus in the lunch on that day.

More than 4,000 tortillas were prepared in Mikkeli's central kitchen and distributed to the schools around the city.

The authority conducted preliminary investigation into the incident on Thursday and Friday and talked to 2800 guardians of the students and 300 staff of the schools and knew that the symptom developed during and after taking the lunch on Wednesday.

The investigation revealed that more than 400 students and staff members were diagnosed with the food poisoning symptoms but most of the symptoms were mild.

In addition to food poisoning, about 470 students and staff suffered from abdominal pain, 350 felt nausea, 240 headache and about 70 experienced vomiting.

The Finnish Food Authority and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) are conducting investigation to find out the reason behind the food poisoning.

The authorities collected samples from different foods and raw materials and sent to the laboratory for examination.

The results of the examinations are expected to be ready in next week.