Boiled eggs supplied to pupils under the government school feeding programme in Charbhadrasan, Faridpur, have been found to taste unusually bitter. Two pupils at one school vomited after eating the eggs on Thursday morning (September 24), the school authorities said. Following the complaint, distribution of the eggs was suspended at five government primary schools in the upazila.
The incident happened at Yusuf Sikdar’s Dangi Government Primary School in the upazila. According to the school, boiled eggs from the school feeding programme were being handed out to pupils after the morning assembly. Several pupils said the eggs tasted strongly bitter as soon as they put them in their mouths. Shortly afterwards two pupils vomited, the school authorities said.
Realising what had happened, teachers tasted the eggs themselves. Finding them unusually bitter too, they decided to stop handing them out and informed the upazila education officer.
“After two pupils vomited, we tasted the eggs and found them very bitter,” said headteacher Nargis Akter. “So we stopped the children eating them and informed the education office.”
“Two classmates vomited after eating the eggs,” said pupil Mafuza. “Then the teachers told us not to eat them.”
On hearing the news, school feeding programme supervisor Bashir Uddin went to the school and said he also found the eggs bitter. Initial conversations with the suppliers suggested that the change in taste of some eggs may be linked to hens being given deworming medicine or antibiotics, he said, but the real cause of the bitterness is not yet confirmed.
Charbhadrasan assistant upazila education officer (ATEO) Azizur Rahman Khan said distribution had been suspended at five schools after the complaint: Yusuf Sikdar’s Dangi, Hariramapur, Charshalipur, Aziz Md Ali Bepari’s Dangi and Padma government primary schools.
A total of 639 white eggs had been supplied to the five schools, and they have been withheld from pupils since the complaint, he said.
“As soon as we learned of the incident, the necessary instructions were given on the egg supply,” said Charbhadrasan upazila nirbahi officer Md Zulhas Hossain Sourav. “Why the eggs were bitter will be properly investigated. If those involved are found responsible, necessary action will be taken.”
The complaint about eggs in a nutrition programme for children has worried parents, and there are calls for the eggs to be tested and for storage and supply arrangements to be checked to establish the real cause.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report