Hotel opts for in-house meals

Hotel opts for in-house meals

JAKARTA (JP): The management of Bumi Karsa Hotel in South
Jakarta has decided to discontinue all outside catering services
after food poisoning forced dozens of participants in two
training sessions to be rushed to hospital on Tuesday.

"We have since then decided to cut all the catering services.
From now on all the meals served in this hotel will be cooked by
our pastry department," the general manager of hotel owner PT
Mekar Prana Indah, Harry Satrio, said in a media conference on
Wednesday.

"It's a little bit disturbing, but it's more hygienic this
way."

Dozens of participants of two training programs held by tape
cassette producer PT BASF and Bank Indonesia and at least two
hotel employees were taken to the hotel's clinic and nearby
hospitals after suffering nausea and vomiting.

Harry said food for Tuesday's event was ordered from a cake
shop and not prepared by the hotel.

He said the hotel followed standard procedures by tasting the
food before it was served.

"And we did not find anything wrong with the food before it
was served," he said.

Harry said the hotel management would consider suing the cake
shop owner if the snacks were proved to be the source of the food
poisoning.

He said preliminary results from the hotel's internal
investigation showed the source of the food poisoning was
probably a traditional snack called semar mendem (glutinous rice,
filled with meat and covered with flour) which was served at the
first coffee break on Tuesday.

"But we have not come to a conclusion yet. Let's just wait for
the results of an ongoing examination by the National Police
Forensic Laboratory," he said. (09)