More than 1,870 Chinese suffered food poisoning from October to December in 2011, and 31 of them died, the Ministry of Health said in a statement Saturday.

A total of 46 food poisoning cases were reported in the period, registering a 43.8 percent increase from the same period in 2010, it says.

Among the cases, nine occurred in school canteens, which caused 688 people to fall ill, according to the ministry.

In October 2011, in an unspecified rural primary school in southwest China, 23 people fell ill from tetramine poisoning, one of whom died, it notes.