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Approximately 40 primary school pupils from Verulam, KZN, needed urgent medical assistance after falling sick from allegedly consuming lollipops purchased at a market day event.
Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) operations managers, Vinod Singh, says the youngsters aged between five and 13 displayed symptoms of food poisoning including vomiting and difficulty breathing on Friday morning.
According to the caller, several pupils approached educators and complained of severe abdominal pains, difficulty in breathing and nausea after consuming lollipops that were purchased from other learners during their market day event.
RUSA members were immediately dispatched to the school and on arrival located most of the ailing children in the parking lot.
Singh said RUSA’s members were dispatched to the scene where paramedics from several ambulance services arrived shortly thereafter to assess the minors.
In February 2022, sweet company, Richester Foods, released a statement distancing itself from speculations that a batch of theirs had made children sick.
This followed after pupils from uMzovane Primary School in kwaMaphumulo in KwaZulu Natal fell sick after allegedly consuming XPOP Energy Red Dragon lollipops they bought from a vendor.
At the time, company Richester Foods managing director, Dr Hussein Cassim said the company had launched a full internal investigation into the matter.
Cassim said the said batch had gone for testing.
“As a sweets seller, children are at the very heart of our business. The health and safety of our customers is our highest priority, and we are unequivocally committed to absolute and complete food safety,” he said.
“This is one of our most popular products, and it has been in circulation since 2017, and we are therefore taking urgent action to get to the bottom of the matter, and to allay all concerns,” Cassim said at the time.
