Matthew Vella The severed head of a mouse that found its way into a staff member’s salad at Mater Dei Hospital yesterday was the source of much amusement, and disbelief, as health authorities launched investigations into the origin of the decapitated rodent.
Hospital staff yesterday told MaltaToday how two midwives who turned up at the hospital canteen for their lunch on Monday had the fright of their lives when they found the head of the mouse, in one of the salads they were eating.
Quite akin to the infamous scene in Fawlty Towers, news spread like wildfire of the mouse’s head that had been apparently been laid to rest in the chilled broad beans dish in the salad station at the canteen.
But despite the harrowing find, the canteen operated by Papillon Caterers was yesterday still allowed to open for business – albeit with nobody turning up for their free food, hospital sources told MaltaToday.
The catering company is contracted by the government to provide meals for hospital staff members.
The discovery of the mouse’s head prompted an investigation by the Public Health Inspectorate to determine whether the mouse had been deliberately inserted into the salad, or whether it had been packaged and cooked in Malta.
“We initially suspected it was an act of sabotage… if that was the case we would have got in forensics right away,” a government source said.
The tests conducted by the health inspectorate, to determine the exact condition of the mouse’s head, revealed that the dismembered part had already been harvested in the country of origin and arrived in a frozen packet to Malta.
But the head was then boiled by catering staff along with the broad beans, and unknowingly served to staff members.
Both the inspectorate and the hospital’s infection control unit conducted an examination of the canteen and the serving dishes to assert whether any other area had been contaminated by the stray rodent’s head.
In a statement issued by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Health, a spokesperson said that tests showed the broad beans had been imported from Belgium and packed in the Netherlands. The inspectorate also informed the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed for immediate steps to be taken, and to investigate the batch on the European market.
The secretariat added that the inspectorate had made contact with the local supplier, inspected his store-rooms, and sealed the rest of the crates that came with the same batch. The inspectorate will be taking action against any person responsible at law.
Nurses and hospital staff speaking to MaltaToday yesterday said news of the mouse was talk of the town inside the state-of-the-art Mater Dei hospital.
“Nobody wants to eat from the canteen now. We got our food from an Msida take-away. The cafeteria was open but nobody went down there to eat,” one staff member said.
But the director of Papillon Caterers, John Buttigieg, claimed they had served some 300 people on Tuesday.
Hospital staff are given free meals but workers claimed many chose to give the food and afternoon tea a miss after the harrowing discovery.
Nurses union chief Paul Pace – who is also head of infection control at Mt Carmel Hospital – was irate about the incident, demanding a proper investigation into how the mouse’s head ended up in the canteen.
Papillon Caterers yesterday issued a statement about the “foreign object” found in the salad dish, saying it had severed all ties with the local supplier.
The contractors of the canteen said the vegetables served in the meals were imported frozen vegetables packed in the Netherlands and imported from Belgium.
“The contractor has taken immediate action, destroyed all the stock coming from the particular supplier, has terminated all ties with the supplier and is seeking legal advice as to what action it will take against him,” Papillon Caterers stated.
“Local health inspectors who incidentally were making an inspection at the canteen on the same day of the incident have found the canteen and kitchen to be up to scratch and upholding all the HACCP catering standards required by EU legislation, and passing all quality control.”
Papillon Caterers also said it was “completely confident that the incident did not arise in-house and the media is invited to visit the kitchen facilities at any time.”
But director John Buttigieg told MaltaToday the incident was “clearly not our fault”. While refusing to disclose who the local vegetable supplier was, Buttigieg said the company was confident of its standards when asked whether the gruesome discovery would affect its other business interests, which includes wedding receptions.
Papillon Caterers is owned by RJC Caterers Ltd and operates Café Papillon in Hamrun, two cafeterias at the Malta International Airport in the check-in hall and in the arrivals lounge.
The firm also operates the canteens at the University of Malta, Junior College, Institute of Health Care and University Residence.
University libel case Earlier this year, the same company lost a libel suit against the University of Malta’s student newspaper Insiter, which ran a report claiming the university’s toilets were cleaner than the cafeteria’s tables.
The story, “Never mind the toilet seats, here’s the canteen-table bacteria”, reported the results of a biological test carried out on toilet seats on campus, and the tables at the University canteen.
The test was carried out by biology students using sterile cotton swabs. According to the test, “the results gave a clear indication of the state of cleanliness of different areas.”
Whilst claiming that “inaccuracies and contamination could have contributed to sources of error”, it resulted that the number of colonies of bacteria obtained from the swab used for the table surface at the university canteen was greater than that obtained from the swab from the toilet seat, “possibly indicating a poor state of cleanliness of tables in the canteen.”
The Magistrates’ Court rules that the test results by a biology student had been faithfully reported word for word, while the news story itself was precise in pointing out that the tests were carried out by students, and not professionals.
The court said that the Insiter had verified the authenticity of the biology report, reproduced it faithfully, and that the biology students’ test results had been historically correct at the time.
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