A STUDENT died after ingesting at least 100 times the safe amount of a food preservative and colour fixative for meats, an inquest heard.

Wira Wahyudi Sinuraya was found unresponsive on his bed by his housemates at his home in Honeysuckle Road on February 14.

Emergency services attended and the 21-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

An inquest into his death at Winchester Coroner’s Court on Monday (September 16) heard how a toxicologist found the level of nitrite and nitrate in the University of Southampton student’s body was more than 100 times the expected concentration.

PC James Morgan, who attended Mr Sinuraya’s home on February 14 following reports a male had been found deceased, told the hearing two 250g bags labelled sodium nitrate were found in his room and it was evident some of the contents had been taken from one of them.

The discovery of the bags led to emergency services declaring a hazmat incident.

PC Morgan told the hearing there was no evidence of any third party involvement.

The inquest heard a package, which is believed to have been the sodium nitrate, had arrived for Mr Sinuraya from Royal Mail a couple of weeks before his death and had been collected at the front door by housemate Thomas Greig.

Mr Greig, who studied on the same course as Mr Sinuraya, told the hearing he noticed nothing out of the ordinary the last time he saw his friend alive.

After not seeing him for a couple of days, Mr Greig and another housemate knocked on his door at around 8pm on February 14 but received no answer, so they entered the room and found him unresponsive and called the ambulance service.

Mr Greig said Mr Sinuraya was “doing better than anyone else I know” on their course at university.

A post mortem by Dr Sanjay Jogai found the underlying cause of death was the drugs he had ingested.

Acting area coroner Samantha Marsh reached a conclusion Mr Sinuraya’s death was drug related.

She said it would be “unsafe” to record a verdict of suicide as there was “nothing to suggest Wira took the sodium nitrate with the intention of ending his own life”.

“Wira took or ingested at least 100 times the safe dose,” said Ms Marsh.

“That is the level taken at the time (of his post mortem).

“The level ingested is likely to be higher and it is higher than previous recorded fatalities.”