A woman ended up at the Accident and Emergency Department of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital after she was served a dish containing scallops at Soup Restaurant, despite her repeatedly telling the waitstaff about her shellfish allergy.
The incident occurred last night after Huijin Jinnie had her dinner at the Jurong Point branch of Soup Restaurant.
In her Facebook post, Jinnie said that when ordering, she specifically told staff that she was allergic to shellfish and ordered dishes without seafood. She ordered their ‘spinach with three eggs’ dish and checked again with the waiter that the dish did not contain seafood when it was served. He confirmed that it did not contain seafood.
However, when eating, she experienced an uncomfortable sensation in her mouth and found shreds of an ingredient she thought resembled scallop. When asked to confirm, a waiter denied this and said that the ingredient was just egg.
Subsequently, Jinnie said that her eyes started to swell and her skin began itching.
The fourth waiter she asked agreed to ask the kitchen only after she insisted that the ingredient looked like seafood and she emphasised upon her shellfish allergy.
The waiter came back and told her, “oh they put a little bit inside only”, in reference to the scallop.
At this point, Jinnie rushed to the nearest clinic, which did not suffice and she had to be rushed to the Accident and Emergency Department of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where she was treated with an IV drip and an injection.
In her Facebook post, Jinnie added, “There is a serious lack of awareness of food allergies in Singapore and food vendors should know that one careless mistake can be life threatening”.
She continued, “I’m considered lucky to end up on a bed at A&E. There are people who die from this. “A little bit inside only” is still considered as having the ingredient. One mouth is enough to trigger my allergy attack”.
She also told TISG that Soup Restaurant has since reached out to her and apologised.
Soup Restaurant’s head of marketing, Irin, told TISG “We have contacted the customer and her parents. Relieved to know that Huijin has been discharged and is resting at home. We are working closely with the family to provide assistance till her full recovery. At the same time we have immediately alerted all our outlets to be more attentive to customer’s food allergy requests. This is a precious lesson for us and we hope this serves as a reminder to other F&B establishments of the severity of food allergies. Continuous effort will be put in to prevent such incident from happening”.
obbana@theindependent.sg