Days after as many as 100 people took themselves to Portimão hospitals over food consumed at the town’s weekend “Street Food Festival” three children are reported to be still interned, on drips, trying to recover.
Tests have confirmed the presence of salmonella bacteria in “suckling pig and chicken” – most of it eaten by luckless revellers who purchased sandwiches at the truck supplied by Lisbon business Mister Pig, reports Correio da Manhã.
Mister Pig’s owner, Dário Maio, has “lamented” the situation calling on anyone affected to get in touch with the firm, as it has already “actioned insurers”.
But his words will be of little comfort to three sets of parents whose children were badly affected and had to be put on saline drips due to overcome the effects of repeated vomiting and diarrhoea.
Cláudio Lamy was one of many festival-goers who became ill after eating Mister Pig’s food and, as he explained to Correio da Manhã afterwards, none of it actually tasted bad.
“We didn’t notice anything strange,” he described the visit with members of his family. But the next day everyone was taken ill, including Lamy’s 89-year-old grandmother.
“My nine-year-old niece is still in hospital,” he told the newspaper yesterday (Wednesday). “My grandmother was released after receiving ‘soro’ (saline drip).”
The two-year-old son of Ricardo Palet was also reported to be still in hospital last night, and his father told CM he thought it was a great pity that Mister Pig had not closed its truck the minute the first cases of poisoning were detected.
According to CM, as many as 70 people received medical help at Portimão state hospital, while 38 others were treated at the private hospital in Alvor.
