SINGAPORE: Catering company Yunhaiyao was fined the maximum S$7,000 (US$5,400) on Thursday (Jul 17) over a mass food poisoning incident at Bytedance last year.
Mr Lu Zhi Tao, CEO of Yunhaiyao, appeared in court to receive the sentence on behalf of the company, which runs the Yun Nans chain of restaurants.
Singapore Food Agency (SFA) prosecutor Mohd Rizal informed the court that there were a total of 171 victims who suffered gastroenteritis symptoms.
Sixty victims were sent to the hospital, of whom 22 were warded for one to three days. The remaining 38 were not warded but received outpatient treatment or self-medicated.
District Judge Janet Wang said this was a “staggering” number of victims, and that it was fortuitous that there were no deaths.
The ByteDance employees had eaten wok-fried diced chicken catered by Yunhaiyao that contained staphylococcus aureus bacteria exceeding what is allowed.
Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, is a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. It produces toxins in food that is not cooked or stored properly, or through people with the bacteria who have poor hygiene and handle food without first washing their hands.
More than 200,000 colony-forming units per gram of staphylococcus aureus counts were found in a sample obtained by SFA. Food regulations state that fewer than 100 colony-forming units can be found in food.
When SFA later investigated the Yun Nans outlet at Northpoint City, they found more than 10 live cockroaches.
SFA previously suspended operations at the outlet and instructed Yunhaiyao to take various food safety measures, including disposal of affected food, cleaning its premises and retraining its staff.
Yunhaiyao had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge under the Environmental Public Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations for the cockroaches, and another charge under the Sale of Food Act.
This was for selling the chicken dish to ByteDance when it was “not of the quality demanded by ByteDance”, since it contained staphylococcus aureus, or staph, counts exceeding allowed limits.
SFA prosecutor Mohd Rizal had asked for a total fine of S$5,500 for Yunhaiyao. This is the company’s first offence.
COMPANY APOLOGISES
In a statement after the sentencing, Yunhaiyao said: “We extend our deepest and most sincere apologies to all affected individuals and the general public.”
An internal investigation found that the root cause of the incident was “serious management negligence”, said the company.
“This was the outlet’s first attempt at offering corporate catering services. Unfortunately, we failed to properly assess the risks associated with launching a new business line.
“Our internal review revealed that the meal volume on that day had exceeded the outlet’s maximum single-meal production capacity, which became a major hidden danger”.
While the raw ingredients met food safety standards, problems emerged in following “basic hygiene protocols”. Because of a lack of control over single-batch quantities during the cooking process, some dishes did not meet the “proper standards” due to “overloading”.
“Temperature and time control during storage and delivery was insufficient, leading to microbial overgrowth in the dishes, which ultimately caused the incident,” said Yunhaiyao.
The company said it had permanently ended its corporate catering business line in Singapore.
