Woman says live cockroach emerged from meat chop halfway through takeaway meal

A woman who bought mixed rice to eat at home said a live cockroach scurried out from behind a meat chop halfway through her meal. “It was so disgusting!” she said.

The woman, who declined to be named, told Shin Min Daily News that she bought takeaway mixed rice from a stall at Tampines Bus Interchange at about 5.30pm on 4 November.

After returning home and opening the container, she was halfway through her meal when she spotted a live cockroach in the food. “The cockroach crawled out from where the meat was. It was so disgusting!”

She immediately took photographs before throwing the meal away. She later shared her experience in the Facebook group Singapore Heritage Food, along with the photographs and a screenshot of her payment, hoping to remind others to be careful when eating mixed rice.

She said she returned to the stall the following day and showed the staff a photograph of the cockroach. She described their attitude as very poor, saying they neither offered a refund nor apologised.

“It felt like they were all pretending not to know anything and ignoring me. Later, a female employee told me to get another portion, but I didn’t dare eat the food again. They didn’t say anything else, so I left.”

She said that when she subsequently checked the stall’s Google reviews, she found that another customer had posted about a similar experience a year earlier.

According to that review, the customer had paid $7 for mixed rice and discovered a cockroach in the food while eating at home. The customer immediately threw the food away.

In response to queries, the Singapore Food Agency said it was following up on the matter.

As part of its investigation and evidence gathering, the agency will contact the person who provided the feedback for further details. SFA said it would not hesitate to take enforcement action if sufficient evidence was obtained.

SFA also stressed that food safety is a shared responsibility. Food operators should observe good food hygiene and handling practices, and ensure their premises are clean and properly maintained.

The stall owner said the live cockroach could have crawled into the food after it was packed.

The mixed rice stall’s owner, Mr Zhang, 36, told Shin Min Daily News that the customer had returned the following day with photographs to ask about the incident. As the food was bought for takeaway rather than eaten at the stall, he said it was difficult to establish what had happened.

“Because the customer took the food home to eat, the live cockroach could very well have crawled in along the way or somewhere else.”

Mr Zhang said he was not trying to shirk responsibility, but photographs alone could not establish who was at fault. He stressed that the stall underwent pest control every month, with the latest treatment carried out just days before the incident, so something like this should not have happened.

Responding to the complaint about the staff’s poor attitude, he said the customer had been attended to by a new Vietnamese employee who did not know how to respond. He added that another employee had apologised and offered a refund, but the customer declined.