Family suffer horrific death after they ate leftovers for breakfast

On 5 October 2020, a family of 12 got together to mark a national holiday and tuck into breakfast together in China.

One particular dish, named Sunatangzi, had been defrosted and prepared after spending a year in the freezer.

The thick noodles made from fermented corn flour were consumed by nine of the family members, as the younger three reportedly didn’t like the taste of the food.

And unfortunately, those who did eat the meal endured horrific deaths, with the suffering starting within hours of consuming it.

It’s said that all of the family members who had eaten the Sunatangzi began feeling seriously unwell, showing symptoms of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

With them all tragically dying within the following days, an investigation into what had caused those who ate the dish to fall ill was launched. And the fermented soup seemed the most probable cause.

It's believed the noodles had spoiled. (Getty Stock)

Intentional poisoning was ruled out by authorities as it was decided the nine family members had been poisoned by toxic bongrekic acid found in the noodles.

This sparked a national warning in China as experts say there isn’t a particular antidote and if poisoned, the fatality rate can be between 40 and 100 percent.

It was found that during the process of being frozen and defrosted, the noodles had spoiled, causing the high concentration of deadly bongkrekic acid to develop.

The respiratory toxin had been detected in both the Suantangzi and the gastric fluid examined by doctors.

The family members quickly began to feel unwell. (Getty Stock)

What is bongkrekic acid, and how does it develop?

Bongkrekic acid is a deadly respiratory toxin which forms in certain fermented foods.

Produced by the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli, the toxin is odourless and tasteless - meaning the family would have had no idea of how dangerous the food was while consuming it.

Bongkrekic acid is also heat stable, which means that cooking will not kill it, and attacks the body by targeting the organs such as the liver, kidneys, and brain.

Director of food safety at the Heilongjiang Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fei, told China News Service at the time that the results of bongkrekic acid poisoning can often be fatal.

Symptoms develop within a couple of hours of consuming contaminated food, which can cause fatalities in as little as 24 hours.

"Eating food contaminated with bongkrekic acid can result in poisoning for both humans and animals and even lead to death, with death rates as high as 40 to 100 percent," a report from China Daily explained at the time.