On May 11, the Singapore Food Agency announced that it has cancelled the catering licence issued to Sakura Buffet Pte Ltd due to food safety concerns.
Food safety concerns
In March 2024, the SFA received feedback on food safety concerns of home-delivery catered meals, provided by five web-based businesses.
Some of the concerns included undercooked and mouldy food, and the presence of foreign matter in food, such as hair or insects.
The SFA investigated and found food provided by these businesses were all supplied by Sakura Buffet Pte Ltd, which was licensed by the SFA to provide catering services.
In total, the SFA found 12 web-based businesses that were linked to Sakura Buffet Pte Ltd:
- Yu Mummy Confinement Meals
- Home Tingkat Catering
- Happy Mamapapa Catering
- Vegetarian Buffet
- Angel Confinement Meals
- After Surgery Food Delivery / Catering
- Healthy Meals Catering
- Keto Meals Catering
- Grain Luscious
- Royal Cuisine Group / The Garden Kitchen Pte Ltd
- Nonya Buffet
- Pregnancy Meals Catering
Consumers are advised not to place orders with the 12 businesses, SFA said.
Previous enforcement action
SFA conducted inspections at the licence premises of Sakura Buffet at Geylang Bahru between March and May 2024.
Several food safety lapses were uncovered, including failure to keep premises clean, false labelling of time stamps on packed food, as well as poor implementation of Food Safety Management Systems required of catering businesses.
On four separate occasions between November 2023 and April 2024 enforcement action had been taken against Sakura Buffet for various lapses, but improvements had not been made.
In order to protect consumers against any further food safety violations, Sakura Buffet's licence to provide catering services has been cancelled, SFA said.
It is also not allowed to operate the premises at Geylang Bahru, and further investigations into the cases reported to SFA are ongoing.
SFA advised consumers not to place orders with the 12 businesses, and said affected customers could pursue the matter directly with the business, or lodge a complaint against them with CASE or Small Claims Tribunals.
Consumers were reminded to check that food caterers had a valid SFA licence before placing any orders, noting that licensees are required to include the licence number in all their marketing materials.
CASE
The Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) said in a May 11 statement that between May 8 and May 10, CASE received 22 consumer complaints related to Sakura Buffet and its linked businesses.
Consumers had reported that the businesses had failed to honour the delivery of its meals, and that the businesses had failed to provide clarity on when they would honour the contractual obligations.
CASE said that it was of the view that the consumers should be entitled to a full refund of the initialised balance of the contracted orders.
The onus was on the company to comply with food safety and licensing requirements.
CASE also said it was unclear when the businesses would be able to rectify their food safety issues and be allowed to operate again.
Consumers who require assistance can contact the CASE hotline at 6277-5100, or reach out via their website.
Top image via SFA and via Deon Li/Facebook