BBQ stall complains that diners pack raw meat and seafood from buffet in takeout containers, says those caught will be ‘banned’

SINGAPORE: A BBQ stall that offers a buffet service recently raised concerns on social media about diners who were spotted taking raw meat and seafood home in takeout containers. 

On Facebook, the food stall named Family Mookata claimed: “Recently, we have caught a few individuals engaging in such behaviour. After this post, we will be taking firm action against anyone found violating our rules.” They also declared that their buffet is strictly for dine-in consumption only and urged the public to respect their business. 

According to Shin Min Daily News, the 33-year-old owner of the food stall founded the business in 2020 and currently has four branches. There was a recent takeout incident that happened on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, when a mother brought her son and friends to dine there. 

The owner stated, “My supplier saw her taking the food away in a packing box when she was delivering it, so she called me. The supplier also saw the mother even ask her son to go home and get another box to pack the food.”

In CCTV footage, it was seen that they had used two square boxes to take home at least half a kilogram of raw meat and about one kilogram of shellfish. Although the portion size of the ingredients was not that large, the owner still found the behaviour unacceptable. The owner explained that their profit margin is already low and that such situations will really affect their business. 

With this, they emphasised in their Facebook post that any customer who breaks their rules will be immediately banned from all their branches. 

Netizens shared their thoughts and opinions about the subject matter in the comments section of the post. One comment said, “Banning them won’t teach them a lesson because they might go to other places to eat. My suggestion is to charge them as ‘food waste,’ like S$10 per 100 g. Refuse to pay, call the police.” 

However, the owner admitted that reporting these incidents to the police would be ineffective because the nature of the offence was not serious enough to warrant prosecution. Also, food could not be recovered or reused. 

Another netizen remarked: “Omg… The price is already very cheap and affordable for people to come enjoy the buffet. Why on earth were such cheapskate people? Should really post them on social media.” 

More so, one more netizen suggested allowing diners to take it away but with an extra charge. “They have good virtue of not wasting food,” the comment concluded.