Enjoying a bite to eat at public events is proving risky: two weeks ago more than 1,000 people came down with food poisoning after eating cake at Children’s Day celebrations, while the latest incident has been blamed on bad barbacoa.

At least 27 people became ill in San Sebastián Coatlán, Oaxaca, where the municipal government hosted a Mother’s Day celebration last Friday and served barbacoa for the event.

Health official Mario Martínez Rojas said the local IMSS clinic was overrun by the number of cases and ran out of medical supplies to care for the victims of food poisoning.

In response, the state government sent Health Secretariat personnel to help out.

Martínez ventured a guess that the barbacoa, a dish of meat usually cooked by steaming, could have spoiled due to high temperatures or because hygiene protocols were not observed during its preparation.

Source: Milenio (sp)