SOTA students get food poisoning from eating ready-to-eat meals for Total Defence exercise

A total of 20 students from the School of the Arts (SOTA) in Singapore have reportedly developed gastroenteritis symptoms after eating ready-to-eat meals catered by SATS as of Feb. 19, 2025.

According to a joint statement by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Health, and SATS on Feb. 19, the meals were prepared and consumed during the Food Resilience Preparedness Programme.

Students developed diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting

On Feb. 18, SOTA had conducted the programme, which is part of the Total Defence Day commemoration activities in schools.

It consists of simulations, such as power outages and food supply disruptions, reported CNA.

SATS had prepared ready-to-eat meals, such as chicken bolognese pasta, which were designed to be stored without refrigeration, eaten at room temperature and with a shelf life of up to eight months.

Those who consumed the pasta later experienced symptoms, such as diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.

The meals, including other dishes such as curry chicken with biryani rice, fish porridge with sweet potato and pumpkin, sweet spicy tomato fish with basmati rice and vegetable marinara pasta, were also distributed to more than 90 schools.

None hospitalised, incident at SOTA deemed "isolated"

In the joint statement, authorities confirmed that none of the affected students were hospitalised.

Teachers have and will also continue to check in with students on their well-being.

SOTA is currently collecting back the unconsumed meals that have been distributed as a precautionary measure.

The authorities added that SFA and MOE are working with participating schools to put in place further precautionary measures, including replacing RTE meals produced from the same batch.

The case at SOTA was also an "isolated incident", based on preliminary findings.

No incidents have been reported in other participating venues thus far.

SFA and MOE will continue to work with participating schools to reiterate the importance of food safety, such as signs where the food packaging is compromised or situations where the food shows signs of deterioration, and good personal hygiene in the consumption of such meals, such as washing hands with soap thoroughly before consumption.

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