Five-star hotel fined $885 as Vietnam probes food poisoning of 34 Japanese students

• Vietnam orders probe into food poisoning of Japanese students
• 34 Japanese fly home from Vietnam with food poisoning symptoms

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have fined five-star hotel New World VND20 million ($885) over food safety violations amid their investigation into a mass poisoning of 34 Japanese students who visited Vietnam last month.

The city said in a report to the government that there were various food safety violations, including processing and cooking seafood in the same area, mixing use of kitchen tools, and failure to store food samples.

Due to the lack of samples, inspectors have not been able to conclude whether meals at the hotel had caused the poisoning.

A group of 263 Japanese students and teachers stayed at the hotel between October 24 and 27 and had dinner there prior to their flight home. During the Vietnam Airlines flight, 34 of them fell sick and were rushed to hospital right upon landing at Tokyo's Narita Airport with symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting.

A doctor from HCMC, who happened to be on the same plane, gave them medicine and first aid.

The Japanese quarantine authority has confirmed that Vietnam Airlines had nothing to do with the incident.

Vietnam is also looking into whether a restaurant in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang was responsible. Some members of the group had lunch there on the same day before their flight.

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