Tijuana

Spoiled chicken is being blamed for a case of mass food poisoning that may be responsible for the death of one man, authorities said Monday.

Most of those affected work at border-area factories, known as maquiladoras, on Otay Mesa. According to the Mexican Institute of Social Security, the first wave of people with food poisoning--about 30--arrived at Clinic No. 20 Saturday.

Among those first treated was assembly worker Rosario Garcia Montoya, 26. Jaime Miranda y Soto, an institute spokesman, said Garcia later died from what may have been food poisoning.

“We will conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death,” he said.

Baja California authorities said a food-catering business, Cocinas Industriales, which feeds many of the maquiladora workers on Otay Mesa, may have served spoiled chicken.

A spokesman at Samsung Mexicana, one of the assembly plants, said several workers at the plant started experiencing stomach aches and dizziness Saturday morning.

Other plants in the area also began reporting similar cases, said the spokesman, who identified himself as the plant’s manager but declined to give his name.

Miranda y Soto said Cocinas Industriales has been shut down while Baja California district attorney’s officials investigate.

Victor Manuel Vazquez, assistant state attorney general, said as many as 140 people may have been affected.