HCM City workers go home early after refusing worms for lunch at Chinese factory

• Vietnam orders probe into food poisoning of Japanese students
• Food poisoning strikes 109 workers at Chinese garment firm in Vietnam
• 34 Japanese fly home from Vietnam with food poisoning symptoms

Thousands of workers at a Chinese garment firm in Ho Chi Minh City went without lunch, on Saturday, after some reportedly found worms in their soup.

According to a story that appeared in Thanh Nien newspaper, on Sunday, a number of workers at the Worldon Company in Cu Chi District vomited at the sight of the worms.

The company sent everyone home early that afternoon after a number of workers fainted and others complained of exhaustion.

This wasn't the first sign of trouble at Worldon's canteen.

On October 29, a lunch of ground fish, shrimp, stir-fried vegetables and cabbage soup sent 109 employees to the hospital.

Doctors held seven of the workers overnight to treat them for severe food poisoning.

In May, dozens of workers became ill after another bad lunch.

Worldon Vietnam is owned by Shenzhou International, a Chinese clothing manufacturer based in Zhejiang Province in eastern China. The company employs more than 6,000 workers.

Food poisoning has been on the rise in Ho Chi Minh City over the past five years.

The most prominent cases involve cafeterias at school and factories.

Last year, the municipal Food Safety Agency logged 171 incidents of food poisoning that killed 23 people and sent nearly 5,000 others to hospital.

The victims rarely resort to legal action.

In March, the city fined South Korean fast food chain Lotteria Vietnam VND146 million ($6,500) for a mass poisoning case that put 60 workers from a Danish company in the hospital.

The city also fined Tam Tam Company, a local lunch provider, VND48 million ($2,200) after 44 primary school students fell ill after eating their food.

Related news:

> Vietnam orders probe into food poisoning of Japanese students

> Food poisoning strikes 109 workers at Chinese garment firm in Vietnam

> 34 Japanese fly home from Vietnam with food poisoning symptoms