Scores of people working for a French aerospace company were left sick with apparent food poisoning after indulging in a sumptuous Christmas feast, according to authorities.
The dinner, organized for 2,600 Airbus Atlantic employees on Dec. 14, is now the center of an investigation by French health officials. The Agence Région de Santé told the BBC that as many as 700 staffers may have fallen sick in the hours after, though an Airbus spokesperson insisted that no more than 100 people were left vomiting and suffering diarrhea.
“I had colic and headaches like I’d never had before,” one employee identified as Nolwenn told the local newspaper West France. “It was worse than giving birth.”
No one was “seriously ill,” the spokesperson said, adding that the affected employees were able to return to work the Monday after the dinner. Airbus is cooperating with the health agency “to identify the cause of the illness and ensure this cannot happen again in the future,” their statement read.
Investigators, who sent questionnaires to everyone present at the event, are probing the possibilities that the poisoning was caused by foodborne pathogens or a contagious strain of stomach flu, according to The Guardian. A spokesperson told the outlet that any conclusions were expected to be released by investigators as early as next week.
On the menu at the event were dishes like foie gras, scallops, lobster, and beef tournedos, according to The Guardian. “Maybe it was the cheese, but we don’t know yet,” Frédérick David, a member of the company’s work committee, told West France.
Most of the food was sourced from local suppliers in western France and prepared in Airbus Atlantic’s canteen, according to Jean-Claude Iribarren, the secretary of the work committee. “People have been a little hasty about the causes,” he explained to West Franceadding that the health authorities were analyzing food samples preserved by the canteen.
A subsidiary of Airbus, the world’s largest commercial aircraft manufacturer, Airbus Atlantic employs 15,000 people across five countries.