With no exact cause,blame falls on ‘overall system failure’

It says in the absence of food samples for testing,it was not possible to obtain direct evidence. “The food or water from the days in question (September 25-27 when students fell ill) were not available for testing,hence firm conclusions could not be arrived at regarding the cause of the incidence….”

From a survey conducted among students,in which 440 responded,the report says that out of the 341 students who took ill,50 did not have dinner on September 25,and 120 did not have breakfast on September 26. There were 62 who did not have Chinese food and 188 who did not have Indian food for dinner on September 25. “The cause cannot be attributed to a single meal. It can be concluded that the infection occurred due to something more generic. The sauces/purees/spices were mutually exclusive between meals,therefore these were ruled out,” the findings say. The possibility that infection was spread during post processing,handling or food consumption was considered.

While water samples taken right after the infection were found to be portable,a thorough testing was also done. Accordingly,10 water samples were taken from various points in the hostel wings and mess/dining area. “Contamination was found in one of the kitchen tap water samples (used for washing vegetables etc). Though some of the water collected from various coolers/aquaguards in the hostel wings were contaminated,there was no particular preponderance of students falling ill from those wings. So,no specific conclusion can be taken from water testing either,” says the report.