TAINAN (TVBS News) — A suspected food poisoning outbreak at the prestigious Evergreen Plaza Hotel Tainan (台糖長榮酒店台南店), a major hospitality venue in southern Taiwan, has hospitalized 70 wedding banquet attendees. Hotel management declared Friday (April 18) that internal testing had confirmed their operational environment, hygiene protocols, and food handler samples all met established health standards.
The luxury establishment released a formal statement earlier that day detailing its crisis management approach, which included forming an emergency response team before laboratory results were available and establishing a dedicated customer care hotline for affected guests. Hotel representatives emphasized their ongoing communication efforts since the incident, pledging to cover all medical costs while offering compensatory payments and health supplements as remedial gestures.
According to one affected guest, symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, and fever struck approximately 70 of the 190 wedding celebration attendees following the March 9 banquet, with subsequent medical testing confirming norovirus infections in multiple cases. The dissatisfied guest publicly condemned the hotel's hygiene practices and emergency response protocols as "too passive," while insisting on substantial financial compensation for those affected.
The complainant further alleged critical procedural failures in the investigation, claiming only six of the ten served banquet dishes underwent laboratory analysis, and even those tests occurred a full week after the celebration — well beyond the optimal testing timeframe. Additional concerns centered on the hotel's apparent failure to screen temporary food service workers, with the guest proposing the establishment should waive the entire banquet fee and redirect those funds toward compensating victims.
The Public Health Bureau of the Tainan City Government (台南市政府衛生局), the local health authority, confirmed receiving an official complaint on March 11 and promptly launching an investigation that verified norovirus presence in two affected individuals. Officials noted that the delay between the event and the report meant no food samples remained available for laboratory analysis. Health authorities have issued public advisories emphasizing proper hygiene practices, including thorough handwashing and complete cooking of food items, as essential preventive measures against norovirus transmission. ★
