Advertisement

Norovirus kids get book tokens in recompense

Author thumbnail
Norovirus kids get book tokens in recompense
Photo: DPA

After promising compensation to thousands of eastern German children who fell ill with gastro-intestinal disease last week, the caterer responsible announced Tuesday what it plans to give the kids to make for their illness: €50 gift vouchers.

Advertisement

The company Sodexo said the certificates can be redeemed for books, learning supplies or tutoring sessions.

“We can well understand how the children and their parents must have felt in recent days, and we deeply regret the trouble caused by what happened,” the statement read.

A sample taken from a batch of frozen strawberries provided by one of the company’s suppliers showed evidence of norovirus contamination. Sodexo said it was planning to stop working with the Chinese distributor and would wait for an independent evaluation before resuming cooperation with the company.

The government-run Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety said the strawberries caused an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting that affected more than 11,000 people in the states of Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia during late September.

Sodexo's statement is in contrast to an earlier one which questioned its responsibility for the sick children. “Less than five percent of all the schools we deliver to have sick children,” company spokesman Stephan Dürholt said on Friday, September 28.

"We presume that the cause of the illness is a norovirus outbreak, which we have nothing to do with," Dürholt said. "The reason that almost all of the children ate food from our kitchens is simply because we deliver food to a lot of schools."

The frozen fruit had been imported from China. German Consumer Minister Ilse Aigner told the Wednesday edition of the Augsburger Allgemeine that there was ample evidence the strawberries were contaminated in their country of origin – and urged Chinese authorities to conduct an investigation.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a trade supervision official in the Chinese port city of Qingdao cautioned against rushing to judgement, saying there was no evidence that the outbreak of gastro-intestinal disease could be traced back to contaminated strawberries from China.

DAPD/DPA/The Local/arp

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also