Oxalic acid blamed for food poisoning of 41 kids in Negros Occidental

Forty-one public school students in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, were rushed to hospitals Wednesday morning due to food poisoning after eating a local pastry called “bichokoy,” police said.

The pastry, bought at the canteen of Man-uling Elementary School, was found to have been sprinkled with refined sugar that had oxalic acid mixed in it, police said, citing health officers.

The Cauayan Police Station said the students were rushed to Cauayan Municipal Health Center and Cauayan District Hospital at past 10 a.m. on Wednesday after eating “bichokoy” during recess.

The police said the pastry was sold by a certain Rosalie Pandacan, who is now under the custody of Cauayan Police Station.

The students, who reportedly noticed that the pastry tasted unusually bitter, vomited, felt nausea, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, dizziness and chest pain, minutes after eating the pastry, the police report said.

The victims, who are aged 6 to 12 years old, were brought by their teachers to the hospitals for medical treatment.

Municipal Health Office officer-in-charge Dr. Febie Vidal and  Cauayan District Hospital chief Dr. Maricel D. Dida both concluded that the oxalic acid was mixed with the refined sugar.

Oxalic acid appears harmless enough in its crystalline form as it looks like sugar or salt. A little amount, however, is enough to be deadly. Forty milligrams or less than a teaspoon will kill an adult, while a pinch could kill a child.

Oxalic acid was the toxic substance that police investigators also blamed for the deaths of two people who drank milk tea from the Ergo Cha milk tea shop in Manila last April.

Police investigators said that oxalic acid were found in the remains of Ergo Cha milk tea shop owner William Abrigo and customer Suzanne Dagohoy, the two fatalities. —Amanda Fernandez/KBK, GMA News