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Govt calls for vigilance after food poisoning among children
The government urges parents to be more vigilant and has ordered local health agencies to increase their monitoring of food establishments, particularly after multiple children throughout the country were poisoned by consuming a street-side snack that was frozen by liquid nitrogen.
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A vendor prepare a snack frozen with liquid nitrogen on June 13, 2022, in Jakarta. (Shutterstock/Bagus upc)
T
he government urges parents to be more vigilant and has ordered local health agencies to increase their monitoring of food establishments, particularly after multiple children throughout the country were poisoned by consuming a street-side snack that was frozen by liquid nitrogen.
The snack in question, locally known as Chiki Ngebul, named after a popular Indonesian packaged snack brand, has taken social media by storm in recent months, as children would often record themselves eating the snack with smoke from the liquid nitrogen coming out of their mouths.
But the social media sensation has also resulted in a number of food poisoning incidents.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, the Health Ministry’s director for environmental health Anas Ma’ruf said there had been at least nine confirmed incidents of food poisoning due to the snack since last year.
“From the data that we have collected, [food poisoning from the snack] has only happened in 2022. We cross-checked [our data] from 2021, 2020 and 2019 and there were no reports of it,” Anas said.
The country’s first case was reported in East Java’s Ponorogo regency in July 2022 in a child that had freeze burns on their skin after consuming the snack.
West Java’s Tasikmalaya regency reported more incidents of food poisoning in November 2022. Health authorities later ruled out 16 cases for not showing any symptoms, but confirmed food poisoning in the remaining seven after showing symptoms of nausea, vomiting, dizziness and stomach pains.
