\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 A Chinese restaurant that prepared and cooked seafood that had been foraged from Changi Beach has apologised.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Aug 8, Havelock Palace confirmed that the marine life \u201ccollected from Singapore\u2019s inter-tidal areas\u201d was brought to the restaurant, and was prepared and cooked in its kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge that accepting and handling ingredients outside our approved sourcing channels did not meet the standards we expect of ourselves as a food establishment,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take responsibility for this and sincerely apologise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its apology comes after a video on Chinese social media platform Douyin showed a group\u2019s haul of marine life \u2013 including crabs and shellfish \u2013 that had been foraged from Changi Beach, which was then taken to Havelock Palace to be prepared and cooked.<\/p>\n
Snippets of the video were later uploaded in a post on Facebook group Complain Singapore on July 13, sparking a backlash from nature-loving netizens and criticism from Pasir Ris-Changi GRC MP Valerie Lee.<\/p>\n
Havelock Palace, located in Clarke Quay, said it has since tightened its food sourcing and receiving controls, and strengthened supplier documentation and traceability.<\/p>\n
It now prohibits food from unauthorised or unverified sources from entering its kitchen. It has also conducted refresher training on food safety and handling for its management and kitchen teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also recognise that some of our earlier responses online did not clearly explain the situation and may have caused further confusion. We apologise for this,\u201d the restaurant added.<\/p>\n
It added that it was committed to upholding higher standards in food safety, responsible sourcing and the trust of its guests. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for your understanding and for holding us accountable,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
In an advisory on its website, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), which is responsible for food safety, advised the public against eating shellfish from the wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese shellfish may contain biotoxins which cannot be removed by cooking,\u201d it said, adding that shellfish should always be purchased from \u201cSFA-approved businesses (importers, retailers)\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Straits Times has contacted the SFA for more information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE \u2013 A Chinese restaurant that prepared and cooked seafood that had been foraged from Changi Beach has apologised. In a statement posted on its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}