Some 300 school students from Turkey's four provinces were hospitalized on Wednesday with suspected milk poisoning after the government recently started providing free milk to seven million schoolchildren across the country.
A total of 110 students from four schools in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir were hospitalized after suffering from vomiting and stomachaches. Several of them had to be taken to hospital by ambulance, Turkish media reported.
Diyarbakir Governor Mustafa Toprak dismissed claims that contaminated milk was to blame and said he did not think the incidents in his province were related to the free milk given to students. He said the incident would not impede the government's free milk project and added that over 230,000 children were given free milk in Diyarbakir alone.
Some students from a primary school in Edirne province were also admitted to hospital after drinking the free milk provided by the government. Edirne Governor Gökhan Sözer said he was investigating.
Around 150 schoolchildren were taken to hospitals from Sivas province with symptoms of food poisoning, forcing the authorities to suspend free milk distribution for the time being.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced last month that about seven million schoolchildren would receive free milk every day at school as part of a new program to provide proper nutrition to students from kindergarten to the fifth grade.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Political News
May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.