MALACCA: Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, three state exco members and 30 senior tourism officials from Asean countries attending a meeting here suffered severe food poisoning after a seafood meal at a fishing village in Umbai.
The minister and the foreign delegates were in Malacca for the second high-level task force and 18th senior officials meeting cum 13th Asean socio-cultural community council from March 23 to March 27.
They became ill after a dinner at the village hosted by the state government on March 24.
They complained of acute stomach ache, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and nausea after consuming seafood dishes from the food arcade at the village.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron said a medical team was rushed to the hotel where the delegates were staying after many of them came down with food poisoning after the meal.
“We have identified the cause of the problem through laboratory tests,” he said yesterday.
Idris, who is still upset over the incident, said it had sullied the reputation of the state, adding that the test results revealed that microorganism contamination was the main cause of the food poisoning.
“We feel ashamed that our guests had to endure such complications, all because of unhygienic food prepared at the seafood outlets in the area,” he said.
It is learnt that laboratory tests conducted by the state Health Department showed that the food served on that day could have been contaminated with E. Coli bacteria.
Idris said the state government had blacklisted the outlets that had been commissioned to prepare the food and would press for action to be taken against them.
Besides Malaysia, the meeting was attended by delegates from Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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