In the midst of Goodwood Park Hotel’s popular annual Durian Fiesta, production for their beloved durian puffs got shut down by the authorities, who got wind of the foul-smelling oversights in their bakery.
The thorny lapses were brought to the attention of the National Environment Agency (NEA), Ministry of Health (MOH), and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), who received reports of 76 food poisoning cases there as of yesterday.
Goodwood Park Hotel’s bakery has since had its license suspended, with the authorities ordering them to cease the production, sale and distribution of all their pastries. It’s a fierce shutdown too — pastries already prepared by them also had to be disposed.
The seriousness and volume of the cases that started since Mar 15 led to the three agencies conducting joint investigations at the hotel, with MOH’s investigations revealing that consumption of their durian pastries were the source of the issues.
The premises however was found to be clean with proper housekeeping and refuse management. Investigators found no signs of pest activity and hygiene lapses, though some faults in food handling were found at the durian pastry kitchen of the bakery.
AVA conducted checks at the food suppliers, but found no food safety lapses at their establishments so far. There were no other complaints of food poisoning from other establishments that used durian pulp from the same supplier.
Goodwood Park Hotel has since been told to sanitise the bakery and all of their equipments and surfaces. MOH has collected stool samples from the affected cases and food handlers, and only those certified medically fit will be allowed to resume work — when the bakery is allowed to resume operations.
The necessary enforcement actions will be taken against the hotel’s bakery if hygiene infringement are found.
Here was what the hotel had to say about the whole brouhaha: