Kopitiam Warns And Penalises Mixed Rice Stall For Centipede Dish

Centipede Was In Kangkong

Hawker centres may have been in the spotlight recently, but let’s not forget our food courts, which occasionally serve their own share of drama.

This might be as small as finding something unpleasant in your food.

Dead centipede in a plate of kangkong

Mr Faz Yusof was having lunch with his colleagues on Tuesday (23 Oct) at Kopitiam at Plaza Singapura.

He bought some kangkong from the mixed rice stall and was casually eating it when he spotted something unusual.

A closer look confirmed that it was a dead centipede among the kangkong leaves.

Source

When informed about it, staff at the stall discarded Mr Faz’s food immediately and gave him a refund of S$3.50.

Business as usual after contamination

Mr Faz told Channel NewsAsia that he saw the stall still operating later in the day.

But a spokesperson from Kopitiam clarified that the group had taken immediate action following Mr Faz’s complaint.

The affected batch of kangkong and other dishes on display were discarded and Kopitiam’s hygiene department conducted a thorough inspection.

Reviews of the stall’s housekeeping, food handling, preparation and storage processes revealed that the error was not due to poor performance in any of these areas.

Kopitiam concluded that the vegetable supplier probably missed out the centipede during  the washing and sorting process.

Kopitiam to continue monitoring the stall

It’s unclear if the detailed review was conducted on the day of the incident.

The stall has since undergone thorough spring cleaning and Kopitiam will continue to monitor it closely.

The stall also faces a written warning and a penalty.

If we can learn anything from this incident, it’s that watching what you eat is definitely very important.

Featured image from Mr Faz Yusof.