Cleaner seen sweeping BreadTalk shelves with broom at night, company says it's 'completely unacceptable'

BreadTalk has apologised after a video circulated online showed a cleaning employee sweeping one of its store's bread shelves with a broom.

According to the person who posted it on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group, the incident happened at 12:15am on Feb. 9, at BreadTalk's Eastpoint Mall outlet.

The eyewitness called it "super unhygienic and disgusting", and questioned if this was practiced in all the outlets across Singapore.

Many commenters echoed her disgust, with some adding that it was not appropriate even if the broom was clean.

BreadTalk's response

In a comment under the video, BreadTalk's Facebook account said such a cleaning practice was completely unacceptable.

"What was captured does not reflect BreadTalk’s standard procedures on our strict food safety and hygiene standards, and we take this matter very seriously," it said.

The person filmed cleaning with a broom was hired from BreadTalk's appointed cleaning vendor.

The company said it immediately took steps to suspend all work with this vendor, and conducted deep cleaning and thorough disinfection at the affected store.

Any products on display at the time were discarded.

BreadTalk also emphasised that the incident captured was an isolated case.

"Strict reinforcement of hygiene protocols with our cleaning partners and staff is reiterated to ensure such an incident will not happen again," it added.

Top images from Jo Chong/Facebook and BSP/Google Maps