Chinese high-speed rail passengers complain of ‘seriously mouldy’ ready meals
One man suffers food poisoning after he and his travelling companion were given food that had gone off
Two passengers on a high-speed train from Beijing were served “seriously mouldy” rice, which left one of the men with food poisoning.
The two men, surnamed Zhu and Xia, bought the ready meals for 40 yuan (US$5.80) each while travelling on the train to Wuhan on Saturday evening, Hubei Daily reported.
Zhu complained to rail staff that the rice in the meal box was “seriously mouldy”, the report said, and received an apology and a refund from the chief conductor. Rail staff offered them two alternative meal packs, but this offer was rejected.
Xia had already eaten half his meal before he spotted there was a problem and soon started vomiting and suffered diarrhoea.
China Railway Guangzhou Group, which manages the rail line, said on its microblog account on Sunday that it had stopped offering ready meals from the batch that included the mouldy food and had suspended supplies from the supplier Shanghai Xincheng Food Company.
The case aroused the attention of the country’s rail authority, which has urged the railway company to investigate and to publish the results once the investigation is finished.
Chinese media outlets have frequently criticised the food on offer on the high-speed rail network both as poor value for money and for having expiry periods of as long as 90 days.
It’s not clear when the meals at the centre of the latest case were produced.