A Christchurch restaurant owner has been sentenced to six months home detention and fined $30,000 after serving customers “toxic food” and saying, “Kiwis need to be toughened up.”
After unsafe levels of Staphylococcus aureus were detected in samples of frozen food at Samurai Bowl on Colombo St, Christchurch, authorities ordered owner Xinchen Liu to destroy all ramen meals.
However, Liu instructed staff to reuse the ingredients, some of which were served to customers and others were given to staff as meals while on duty.
“If this happened in China, you eat the product and probably get diarrhoea for one day but then your body gets toughened up to the bacteria. Kiwi people here are friggin’ weak. They need to be toughened up,” Liu told one employee.
Liu has now been sentenced after failing to ensure food in her restaurant was safe and suitable to eat.
She has also violated the Immigration Act by employing staff who were either meant to be working elsewhere or not lawfully entitled to work in New Zealand.
Liu was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday to six months’ home detention and fined $30,000.
She was convicted of aiding and abetting, knowingly supplying false and misleading information, allowing persons to unlawfully work and failing to ensure that food was safe and suitable.
Photo Credit: NZ Herald
