SAITAMA (TR) – Six students and a teacher at an elementary school in Asaka City suffered chipped teeth after eating overcooked noodles during lunch, the city government has revealed, reports NHK (Mar. 13).
On Thursday, the students and teacher at Asaka 5th Elementary School chipped their teeth while tucking into plates of sara udon, which includes crispy fried noodles topped with cabbage and other vegetables.
Three of the six students received medical attention at a hospital. Outside of the six with chipped teeth, several other students reported suffering injuries to their mouths, the city said.
The chipped teeth were caused was the hardness of the noodles in the dish, which is famous in Nagasaki Prefecture.
According to the city, sara udon noodles are typically cooked for between two and three minutes. However, in this case they were left cooking for 10 minutes, causing them to turn very hard.
Apologize to the victims
At the school, lunches for students are cooked without instructions from a dietitian about the cooking time for noodles. As a result, two staff members used their best judgment.
Representatives from the city are expected to apologize to the victims.
This was not the only food-related problem at the school last week. On Wednesday, students in the sixth grade were served year-old donuts. This was due to a mistake made by a delivery company, the city also said.
“School lunches should be eaten by children with peace of mind,” the lunch division of the school said, “and we would like to take measures such that this will never happen again.”
