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ARCHIVED - 44 people get food poisoning in Valencia during filming of MasterChef Spain
The mass food poisoning allegation follows shooting for the show at Oceanogràfic de València in January
Spain's MasterChef 11 television series has been dealt a major blow following a mass food poisoning allegation after one guest at filming in Valencia city revealed on social media she and dozens of others fell ill afterwards.
The episode was shot in January outside Oceanogràfic de València where contestants cooked a menu prepared by chef Rakel Cernicharo. In celebration of the marine world, 120 workers at the aquarium were invited to sample the creation of Masterchef hopefuls.
The programme aired on Spanish channel RTVE on Monday April 10, and a woman, one of the diners, has claimed on Twitter that "out of 70 people, more than half" ended up with food poisoning.
She posted four messages in total, but has since made her account private, so they can no longer be seen.
Revealing the 'real outcome' of the show, the woman known only as Irene, captioned a photo of herself with four other diners: "All with gastroenteritis. The following night I had to go to A&E to get a shot of Primperan to stop vomiting. I lost 5 kilos in three days."
She posted a further message that read: "My company informed MasterChef of what had happened. We couldn't go to work. Public Health officials called us to investigate what had happened, but nothing came of it. I am writing this here because (MasterChef) haven't even had the decency to apologise to us."
The Health Department has confirmed that 44 people were intoxicated during the recording of the episode, and that the symptoms they presented were those of gastroenteritis, i.e. vomiting and diarrhoea.
They have assured that the Valencian Health Department carried out a contact study a few days after the event, but have not specified whether they had to be treated in health centres or not, nor which food was the cause of the contagion as there was no longer any food to analyse.
The incident was also reported to the Ministry of Health.
Producer of the show, Shine Iberia, has since issued the following statement: "From MasterChef we are very sorry for the indisposition expressed by some of the diners who attended the recording in Valencia.
"This is an absolutely exceptional case in the 11 years of MasterChef in Spain, a programme in which guaranteeing the food care of the people taking part is an absolute priority.”
Meanwhile, Oceanogràfic has assured that it hosted the event "like any other" and that the facilities were "a mere container", with no relation whatsoever to the food that was prepared.
Image: Oceanogràfic València
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