Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan said the officers in charge had been instructed to suspend the company after receiving news on the tainted food.

The ministry was waiting for a full report from the school and the findings of the hospital before deciding on sterner action against the company, he said on his blog today.

An English daily reported on Sunday that seven pupils of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Ladang Nigel Gardner, Hulu Selangor, were admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital last Friday (Feb 26) after eating glass shards in the noodles provided under the Supplementary Food Programme.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Najib Razak shared the anger of parents whose children were hospitalised and called for a thorough investigation to identify problems in the food-handling procedure so that such an incident would not recur.

Kamalanathan said: “The ministry also made sure that a qualified supplier of food be put in place so as to not disrupt the ongoing food programme.”

He has instructed the school authorities and teachers in charge of the programme to check on the food and quality before allowing the pupils to eat it.

“I visited the children yesterday and was very relieved when the doctors informed me there was no permanent health issue for any of them,” the Hulu Selangor Member of Parliament said.

He gave instructions for all 54 pupils who ate the food to be X-rayed as a precautionary measure to ensure they were “really free from any health affliction due to the food poisoning”.

– BERNAMA