A total of 261 children have fallen ill in the Georgiyevsk District, in the Stavropol Territory, 56 of whom, mostly kindergarteners, are now in care facilities.
A preliminary probe carried out by Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, revealed that the infection might have been spread by kefir, a fermented milk drink, supplied to the kindergartens, under the Slavyanovsky brand.
Several more people visited a local hospital Wednesday after eating chocolate covered dairy products produced at the same enterprise.
The Viliya milk company has stopped production, and a criminal investigation has been launched.
In mid-August, a total of 123 children fell ill in the Stavropol Territory's town of Blagodarny, also from food poisoning.
Several incidents of mass food poisoning have been registered at children's camps throughout Russia this summer.
In northwest Russia's Novgorod Region, about 120 children and adults were infected with an intestinal bug in August.
In late June in the Sverdlovsk Region, in the Urals, about 40 people, including 33 children, were hospitalized with acute intestinal infection, and in the same month, dysentery led to the hospitalization of 93 children and two adults at two summer camps in the Moscow Region.
