Patcharapol Panrak
About 60 Ubon Ratchathani residents sustained food
poisoning after eating som tam on the beach in Rayong.
About 20 percent of the 270 Ubon Phak Phua Thai Party
and Pattana community residents visiting Mar Ramoung Beach suffered
vomiting, diarrhea and nausea June 9.
Rayong Provincial Administrative Organization
representative Thaweep Saengkrajan said a number of the group were
transported to Rayong Hospital for treatment after grilling their own
squid and eating various kinds of seafood on the beach before a formal
dinner at the Rayong Beach Hotel.
Symptoms didn’t appear until after the buffet of six
dishes at the hotel, leading to accusations by the sickened Issan
villagers that the hotel had poisoned them. Hotel General Manager Buncha
Haadsom flatly denied the charges, noting all the food served to the
Ubon natives was properly cooked and included no raw meat. Further, he
said, nearly 600 guests from other groups did not fall ill.
Buncha reminded the Ubon group they had eaten on the
beach, sometimes grilling their own seafood and dining on raw fish in
the som tam. The beach food, he said, made them ill.
All the sickened visitors were treated with liquids
and antibiotics and released.
