NH Investigation Into Under-Cooked School Lunch Continues

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Two of six children who may have fallen ill as a result of eating under-cooked chicken strips at Pineview Elementary School on Wednesday are starting to feel better.

On Thursday morning, Northern Health and School District 57 held a joint news conference call to announce the incident, which involved 137 students at the school. (click here for previous story)

Although yesterday was a non-instructional day, parents of the two phoned the school to say that their youngsters appeared to be on the mend. 

Northern Health’s Director of Communications, Mark Karjaluoto, says the other four continue to suffer from symptoms like nausea, low-grade fevers and cramps.  And he says Environmental Health Officers have delivered specimen containers to the families in order to do testing.

Karjaluoto says a bright note is that preliminary lab test results on chicken samples taken from the school were negative for salmonella.  He says testing for other types of bacteria are ongoing.

The meal of chicken strips and mojos was delivered to the school by an as of yet unnamed licenced restaurant/caterer.  The business ceased operations voluntarily on Thursday and Karjaluoto says it remains closed.  He says NH officials spent yesterday interviewing food prep staff at the premises as part of the ongoing investigation.

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