Schools left without lunchboxes after kids fall ill
A subsidiary of fast food chain Café de Coral says it will suspend its lunchbox service for schools on Monday and Tuesday next week, after reports some children fell ill recently after eating food provided by the company. Luncheon Star said in a statement that it will use the suspension period to look into the matter and deep clean its production lines. It said it usually sends out more than 100,000 school lunchboxes each day. Meanwhile, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it has inspected the firm's factories in Sha Tin and Yuen Long and has launched a prosecution regarding alleged improper maintenance at the latter. One parent told RTHK she is scared to think what the children have been given. "They are eating it everyday. Delivery is sometimes delayed and the meals aren't really served hot. I hope the company would evaluate itself a bit," she said. A pupil of one of the schools affected also complained about the quality of the meals provided. "The rice is too soft and soggy. There's no sauce. It says it's ham and meat patty with rice but it only has a few pieces of lean meat and no ham," she said. Hung Wai-shing, the principal of an affected primary school in Tin Shui Wai, told an RTHK programme on Friday that various options are available to make sure pupils still have something to eat at lunchtime.  "[We can ask] parents to prepare meals for the students, or students can go home for lunch. Parents can also bring their children out for lunch, or allow them to go out for lunch. Students can also bring dry food to school," Hung said. Education sector lawmaker Chu Kwok-keung said some schools could suspend afternoon classes on Monday and Tuesday because they can't feed pupils at lunchtime. Earlier this week, the government's Centre For Food Safety said it had stepped up inspections of factories supplying school lunchboxes.