Remember yesterday’s story about the city’s health department testing ice cubes from a warung in Setiabudi and finding them to be filled with nasty bacteria and chemicals?
At first it wasn’t clear why the government had chosen to suddenly test the ice cubes at that particular warung, but now the police have revealed that the investigation began after several people who ate there reported cases of food poisoning (or in this case beverage poisoning) on March 4.
The ice, which was apparently made using tainted water from the Kalimalang river, was traced back to a manufacturer called PT Eslar Main located on Jalan Rawa Gelam in Cakung, East Jakarta.
The Department of Industry and Energy in East Jakarta is currently investigating the company and its ice manufacturing facilities.
“We will investigate first. We just learned about this facility after hearing about these shocking cases,” said one employee of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, SH Manalu, to Metrotvnews.com.
SH also said that the government had yet to find the company’s official business license or a permit for the factory.
PT Eslar Main was said to be selling ice blocks for Rp 12,000 to 30,000 per block, and sold up to 2,000 blocks per day. That’s a lot of tainted ice to be floating around the city.
Hopefully these dirty ice dealers will be shut down and published and the government will start being more proactive about monitoring health conditions at warungs and other low cost eateries.
