Food Poisoning ...

Yes, the news came out in the newspapers on Friday 13th. Food poisoning cases (200+) in several of Pat's Schoolhouse childcare centres, from the food prepared by Mum's Kitchen caterer. Another childcare operator from the same caterer also has food poisoning cases, and that brought the total number to 300+. Luckily, my childcare was not affected, since most of the cases were concentrated in the central and east areas.

The food was prepared by the caterer by 930 am, but lunch at the childcare starts only at 12 pm earliest. So food would be out in the open for at least 2.5 hrs. With Singapore hot and humid weather, would be very easy for bacteria to grow on cooked food, causing food poisoning.

So now, the auntie in my childcare has been preparing our food. But Mummy was so upset with the incident and disappointed with Pat's Schoolhouse management, not because the food poisoning, but because Pat's Schoolhouse did not inform parents of the decision to outsource the food preparation to external caterer. They did not even consult parents on this decision. When Daddy and Mummy made the decision to send me to Pat's Schoolhouse, it was mainly because of the high quality of food preparation that Pat's Schoolhouse focuses on. When you have infants and so young kids with immune system not fully developed, the school needs to be highly sensitive to high quality food preparation ... and you would have thought Pat's Schoolhouse would have that in mind.

Since I was an allergy kid, I need to have special food diet, and the auntie in my school prepared my food separately from the rest (no egg, no milk, no peanuts). Then Pat's Schoolhouse decided to standardize the food quality by shifting all the food preparation for all childcare in the West to the kitchen in West Coast branch. Parents were informed, and were agreeable since it was still prepared internally in Pat's Schoolhouse (at least there is some quality control). However, last Jul when Pat's Schoolhouse made the decision to outsource food preparation to external caterer, parents were not informed. And within 12 months, this food poisoning incident occurred. Outsourcing food to external caterer to save cost may work for companies with adults (with developed immune system), but would be hard for kids !!!

Pat's Schoolhouse management is now reviewing the decision on food preparation outsource ... so hopefully, the management will consult parents on its final decision before going ahead. And hopefully they will make the right decision to have the food preparation done inhouse (so food poisoning case happened in the past 20+ years)