Sota students fall ill from ready-to-eat meals distributed during Total Defence exercise

SINGAPORE – Some School of the Arts (Sota) students who consumed ready-to-eat (RTE) meals distributed as part of Total Defence activities have come down with food poisoning symptoms.

On Feb 19, Sota said it had received feedback that some of its students became unwell after consuming the food, and that the school is investigating the incident with the relevant authorities.

As a precautionary measure, students with unconsumed RTE meals should return them, said Sota’s vice-principal Ann Tan in an e-mail to parents seen by The Straits Times.

Ms Tan urged students who became unwell after consuming the food, which had been distributed during Sota’s food resilience preparedness programme on Feb 18, to seek medical attention.

In a joint statement, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Health and food solutions provider Sats, which produced the meals, said they are investigating the gastroenteritis cases reported at Sota by students who had consumed the RTE meals as part of the school’s Total Defence activities.

It added that as at Feb 19, 20 students were reported to have symptoms, which is about 1 per cent of the number of Sota students who ate the meals.

One student, who wanted to be known only as Lim, 16, told ST she had diarrhoea on Feb 19, a day after having two boxes of chicken bolognese pasta.

She had eaten one box in the morning and another in the afternoon on Feb 18.

Another student said she ate a box of curry chicken briyani on the morning of Feb 18, and had a stomach ache hours later.

“I went to the toilet three times in the span of 2½ hours,” said the 16-year-old, who did not want to be named.

ST visited the Sota campus on Feb 19 and spoke to several students who said they had eaten the RTE meals, including the chicken bolognese pasta, but did not suffer any ill effects.

One student, who identified himself only as Chia, 16, told ST that he felt fine after having a box of sweet spicy tomato fish with basmati rice.

The joint statement also said SFA and MOE are working with participating schools to put in place further precautionary measures. These include replacing RTE meals produced from the same batch.

It added that based on preliminary findings, the cases of gastroenteritis are an isolated incident at Sota and that no incidents have been reported at other participating venues thus far.

SFA and MOE said they will continue to work with participating schools to reiterate the importance of food safety, including spotting signs of compromised food packaging and food deterioration. They also advised consumers to practise good personal hygiene, such as washing their hands thoroughly before eating.

The RTE meals were a new line developed by Sats for public consumption during national emergencies.

Sats had said that the halal-certified meals, which include curry chicken with briyani rice, fish porridge with sweet potato and pumpkin, and vegetable marinara pasta, were developed using advanced techniques similar to those used for Singapore Armed Forces combat rations.

As part of Exercise SG Ready, a national preparedness exercise, 150,000 of the meals

will be distributed to schools and active ageing facilities around Singapore

between Feb 15 and 28.

For 2025, the exercise, which is in its second iteration, was focused on strengthening food resilience amid simulated power outages.

More than 100,000 students and teachers from over 90 schools and three ITE colleges, along with around 8,000 senior citizens, had received or were due to receive the meals, which Sats had said were sterilised during preparation.

Sats said that prior to distribution, the RTE meals were kept in individual sealed boxes which had been tested for leaks, and were stored at room temperature in cool, shaded conditions.