It was supposed to be a festive dinner but in turn it left thousands of employees with gastroenteritis. French aerospace group Airbus Atlantic hosted a gourmet Christmas dinner for 2,600 workers but hundreds were left sick. The dinner caused a mass outbreak of gastroenteritis among 700 employees.
An affected employee said that she had colic and headaches worse than giving birth. An Airbus spokesperson, however, said that nobody was taken “seriously ill”.
The health authorities have now launched an investigation into the outbreak, as per a report by The Guardian. The feast was organised and provided by Airbus’ own restaurant at its site at Montoir-de-Bretagne in the Loire-Atlantique region of western France. The secretary of the Airbus Atlantic works committee confirmed the same to the daily and said that the feast was organised for Christmas dinner with a lot of local suppliers as they “do every year”.
The menu included delicacies such as scallops, lobster, foie gras and tournedos as well as desserts such as ice-cream logs and hazelnut and chocolate mousse at 15 euros a head.
Many of those who feasted on the delicacies fell ill within 24 to 48 hours after the meal. Workers who fell sick showed “clinical signs of vomiting and/or diarrhoea” after the dinner hosted on December 14.
As per the report, health officials are yet to identify the cause of the mass poisoning. They are yet to ascertain if the outbreak was caused by a bacterium in the food or an extremely contagious gastroenteritis virus.
A spokesperson said that the investigation is underway and the results should be available in the next week. A questionnaire has been sent to all those who were present at the dinner.
The Airbus spokesperson said that people have been a bit hasty about the causes. “We are obliged to keep samples of every product served in the restaurant. They will be analysed by the ARS (health authorities). The investigation will take several more days,” said the spokesperson.
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