Food poisoning hits 14 at MBS restaurant
Two diners were admitted to hospital with food poisoning after a department dinner at a seafood restaurant at Marina Bay Sands, reported The New Paper (TNP).
Another nine, out of 16 colleagues present on 9 December, also suffered similar symptoms of food poisoning over the next two days, the paper said.
Yahoo! Singapore understands that the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) were also notified on the same day of two suspected food poisoning incidents at Todai, an international seafood and sushi buffet restaurant at MBS, involving a total of 14 people.
Like the 11 at the department dinner at the restaurant, the other 3 affected diners consumed raw oysters with one being hospitalised thereafter, an NEA spokesperson confirmed.
All those that fell ill with food poisoning, however, have since recovered.
“I never expected to get food poisoning from their food as I’ve eaten there a few times before,” one of the affected diners, Shawn Teo, was quoted by TNP as saying. “The oysters tasted fine that night… It was only towards the end, they were not as cold and felt as if they were kept under room temperature.”
When contacted by Yahoo! Singapore, Todai’s management said that it has not been confirmed that the oysters were the cause of the food poisoning. As a precautionary measure, however, the restaurant has changed a supplier and uses salt water and lemon juice to wash the oysters now, instead of plain water.
Todai added that they had reimbursed the full cost of the S$1,600 department dinner and also gave affected diners S$100 each to cover their medical expenses. They will also pay for the cost of hospitalisation for at least one of the diners, which amounts to an estimated S$1,400.
A joint inspection by MOH and NEA conducted on 13 December had revealed Todai’s premises to be clean and satisfactorily maintained, NEA’s spokesperson said.
Correction: The affected diners are 14 in total instead of 25 as said in an earlier headline after the NEA clarified the numbers.
