Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
NESTLÉ JAMAICA Limited is yet to receive lab test results to determine the cause of illness of 36 Singer Jamaica employees who sampled its products last Saturday.
A statement from Singer Jamaica Ltd., issued on Wednesday, said employees from five of its branches in Kingston and Portmore fell ill after sampling food items prepared by Nestlé.
Contacted yesterday, Dianne Thompson, consumer services manager at Nestlé Jamaica, told The Gleaner that the product the employees sampled was a special punch, called Ponche de Crème, which is popular at Christmas time. She said the recipe for the punch was a combination of Nestlé's products and other ingredients, including eggs.
Mrs. Thompson stressed that the recipe was not prepared by Nestlé but by an independent third-party contractor.
"We suspect that the problem arose from the presence of eggs in the recipe as well as the conditions under which it was stored and transported," she said.
NO CONFIRMATION ON SAMPLES
Mrs. Thompson was unable to say when the samples would return from the lab but noted that her company was very concerned about the circumstances surrounding the illness.
"We are (however) assuring people that we can guarantee the integrity of all our branded products on the market," she said.
Sharon Spence, general manager of Singer Jamaica Limited, told The Gleaner yesterday that the employees were given two to five days sick leave and some are still ill and off work.
She, however, noted that the stores were still operating effectively as some of the employees had reported for work although they were still ill.
Ms. Spence said some of the symptoms the employees were experiencing included vomiting and diarrhoea.
Singer Jamaica explained that, from time to time, the company allowed organisations and supply partners to provide samples of their products at its locations.
