This is not the first time and it has nothing to do with the mess hall. We had a real bad case of food poisoning (more a dissentary problem) in Desert Storm.

In Dharan the food was being served by Saudi's. Don't know if you know it or not but the people in this country do not use toilet paper. They will approach Americans with one hand behind their back because that is the hand they wipe with and Americans will typicaly try to shake hands with them. Such was also the case when they served the food. They used one hand to hold the ladel and the other stayed behind their backs, most of the time.

You can probably find stories about Desert Storm and masses of Troops with 'food poisoning' that mimic the stories hitting the papers today...