A type of bacteria present in the food eaten by some doctors and other staff members of IGMH had been the cause of the food poisoning incident at IGMH last week, the Maldives Food & Drug Authority has said. A number of staff at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital had suffered food poisoning last week after eating the meals at a lunch hosted by the Hospital's Urologist Dr Ahmed Ashraf on the occasion of the birth of his new baby. The Director General of the FDA Moosa Anwar said on Sunday that the tests they had done on a dessert that had been prepared by Buruzu Catering Services for the lunch had revealed that a bacteria called salmonella was present in the eggs that had been used to prepare it. "Salmonella is present in raw eggs,' Moosa said. "It is also present in poultry. The tests showed that the IGMH staff had suffered food poisoning due to eating the chocolate mousse that had been prepared as a dessert for the lunch using raw eggs.' He also said that tests had shown traces of the bacteria present in some of the IGMH staff members who had fallen sick after eating at the lunch. The bacteria known as salmonella is known to cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, weakness and fever in those who have consumed food infected with it. Before the MFDA had revealed the results of their tests, the Chairman of the Buruzu Catering Services Abdul Azeez had already said that he suspected the food poisoning could have been caused by the eggs included in the chocolate mousse they had made. Azeez said that the eggs they had used to prepare the chocolate mousse were not the kind they usually used and that it had a strange reddish colour to it. Most of the staff who had fallen sick due to the food poisoning incident are gradually returning to work after recovering but there are still some who have not yet fully recovered.