The incident happened at Truong Vinh Trading Industrial Garment Co. Ltd and Smart Elegant Vietnam International Garment Co. Ltd, both located in District 12.

The employees said they had fried fish, cooked pork, boiled cabbage and sour soup for the dinner.

Shortly after having dinner together, many of them showed symptoms of severe stomachache.

The situation got worse, and representatives of the two companies took those employees to hospitals nearby for fears that they had got food poisoning.

Inspectors from the HCM City Health Department took specimens of food to determine the cause of the poisoning case.

Most of the employees have now been discharged from hospital, leaving only 20 who are still being treated.