Restaurant's Cook Arrested After Woman Dies Of Food Poisoning In Kerala

The death of a young woman in Kottayam district of Kerala recently, after having a non-veg dish from an eatery, has been found to be due to food poisoning and the chief cook of the restaurant was arrested on Sunday, police said.

An officer from Gandhinagar police station in Kottayam said during their investigation it was found that the woman, a nurse in Kottayam Medical College, died due to food poisoning and subsequently, the chief cook of the eatery in question was arrested.

The woman, Reshmi, had ordered food from that eatery in the last week of December 2022.

Besides her, 21 others too had fallen sick after consuming food from the same eatery, police said.

Her family has been right from the beginning claiming it was a case of food poisoning, but police initially said it had no evidence or material to establish the same.

In Kasaragod, where a young woman died on Saturday allegedly after eating biryani bought from a local hotel, a Food Safety Department official from the district said the cause of death was not due to food poisoning.

The official said, on Sunday, that no expired, adulterated or unhygienic food items were found from the eatery from where the woman had ordered food and no one else who ate from there was affected.

The Kasaragod SP told media that according to the doctor who performed the victim's post- mortem, there were injuries to the liver which were inconsistent with food poisoning.

However, a chemical analysis needs to be carried out to rule out the presence of any drugs or poison, the officer said.

Meanwhile, in Pathanamthitta district, in an incident of suspected food poisoning, some students and parents took ill and were hospitalised after eating meals served at an event in a school there, police said on Sunday.

While the event was held at the school on January 6, information about 7-8 people, including four children, suffering from food poisoning was received today, an officer of Kodumon police station said.

The officer said police came to know about the incident during routine work and have not yet received any complaints regarding the same. "We are investigating the incident," he said.

He also said that the health officials have arrived and were inspecting the eatery from where the food for the event was ordered. Those who took ill were hospitalised.

The incident comes close on the heels of about 100 people, invitees to a baptism function, falling sick after consuming food served at the event in Keezhvaipur in Pathanamthitta district on January 1.

Also, a spate of incidents, allegedly due to food poisoning have been reported from the State in the last two weeks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)