Egg in rice for allergy customer
ACHINESE restaurant in Cardiff faces a major fine after it sold rice containing egg despite being told it was for a person with an egg allergy.
Directors of the Happy Gathering restaurant in Cowbridge Road East, Canton, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to a trading standards offence.
The court heard that an investigation was launched by Cardiff council’s food safety department to assess food providers and their ability to exclude certain foods from their recipes when asked to do so.
On January 17, 2017, officers made a request for special fried rice from Happy Gathering with a note asking for egg to be omitted from the meal due to the buyer having an egg allergy.
When the rice was analysed it was found to contain 88mg of egg white protein.
The restaurant was then visited by officers who spoke to the managers to explain their obligations when it came to their customers’ allergy needs.
Another test was purchased on May 2, 2017, with an order made for special fried rice without egg, due to the customer having an egg allergy.
When this was tested the rice was found to contain egg white protein of 20mg.
At the court hearing, the director of Orchard Falls Ltd, which owns Happy Gathering, Kin Wai Chan, pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to operating a food business which placed unsafe food on the market.
District Judge Bodfan Jenkins adjourned the case for sentencing at the same court on August 3.