144 treated in China: cook may have mistaken nitrate for table salt

At least 144 Chinese students were treated for food poisoning symptoms Wednesday after a cook at their cafeteria appeared to have mistaken industrial nitrate for table salt, state media and officials reported. The food poisoning erupted at Changchun University in northeastern Jilin province after the students had eaten breakfast consisting of fried rice with scrambled eggs at the school’s dining hall, Xinhua news agency said. They soon started vomiting — and some even wound up in coma — but as of Wednesday afternoon, they were all out of danger, nurse Lu Xing told AFP by telephone. “It appears they had eaten nitrate,” she said, referring to an industrial salt often used in fertilizer. It was not clear how the nitrate had ended up in the university kitchen. Xinhua said police were investigating the case. Food poisoning cases are an increasingly regular occurrence in China mainly due to insufficient government monitoring of the food service industry and poor hygiene practices. afp

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