Food poisoning affects 1,700 South Korean students

South Korea’s government today ordered dozens of schools to suspend their lunch programmes after more than 1,700 students taken ill with food poisoning.

The Education Ministry took the measure for 68 schools in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province – which receive lunch catering service from one company – after 1,709 students from 25 of the schools showed food poisoning symptoms, including stomach pain, diarrhoea and vomiting.