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SFA Investigating 3.5cm Metal Piece Found in Guzman Y Gomez Taco

2021-08-28 , 3:52 pm

Not everyone likes surprises, but for those that do, maybe a 3.5cm rusted piece of metal in the tacos they’ve ordered isn’t exactly what they have in mind.

An Unpleasant Surprise Wrapped Up in a Taco

On 25 June, a man ordered some tacos from the Guzman Y Gomez outlet located at 332 Tanjong Katong Road via Deliveroo.

After receiving the delivery, he, his wife and two other friends chow down.

Oddly enough, the man felt a sharp pain in his mouth after biting into his taco.

Spitting out the mouthful of chewed-up taco, he found a rusty and bent metal piece measuring 35mm long and approximately less than a centimetre wide.

Naturally, he was shocked, but the damage was apparently done.

The man along with his wife and the two friends reported experiencing diarrhoea, stomachache, and a host of other side effects after eating the tacos.

He told Mothership that he “experienced an extremely uncomfortable stomachache, bloatedness, gastric attacks, heartburn and nausea” that lasted for a week or so.

He consulted two different doctors regarding his situation and was asked to see a medical specialist if his symptoms persisted after the week.

Thankfully, the medication he was given worked and that there was no longer a need to see a specialist.

Guzman Y Gomez Offered Compensation But With a Crucial Condition

The man sent in a complaint to Deliveroo after finding the metal piece and Deliveroo forwarded his complaint to Guzman Y Gomez.

Deliveroo also refunded the man the money he paid for the tacos.

Guzman Y Gomez, on the other hand, sent one of their managers to contact the man to further understand the issue and they had a two-week-long discussion via email.

The company admitted to their fault in the incident, telling the man that the metal piece he found was a rusted grill brush that had fallen off.

They claimed that the incident was taken seriously and promised to conduct an audit of all their kitchen utensils across all outlets in Singapore.

However, not long after, they did a U-turn and offered the man S$2,000 compensation over a phone call on 16 August 2021.

He will only get the compensation promised if he signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Deal or No Deal?

“No deal!”

Instead, the man decided to report the incident to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) two months after that.

Initially, he and his family wanted to take the deal offered since it would help cover the medical expenses incurred with some extra to spare.

However, the man decided that he couldn’t trust Guzman Y Gomez to do the right thing and carry out the audit on their kitchen utensils as promised.

Especially after they squeezed in an NDA into the deal, I guess.

After all, an NDA doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing a company does if they wanted to remedy the situation; it’s the kind of thing a company does if they want to bury an incident.

The man also expressed his concern over other people who ordered food from that Guzman Y Gomez outlet.

He told Mothership that other customers might have consumed a piece of the rusty grill brush in their food as well and had brushed off the subsequent symptoms as being “something they ate”.

By reporting the incident to the SFA, the man said that he finally had some “closure” and was able to move on.

Bad Food Safety and Hygiene Conditions at Guzman Y Gomez’s Tanjong Katong Outlet

The man did the right thing by going to the SFA because apparently, the outlet he reported on was found to be lackadaisical when it comes to food safety and hygiene.

Although the investigation is still ongoing, the SFA promised to take action against the operator for failing to maintain a clean premise for the preparation of food.

That being said, if you have any information regarding the case, or if you yourself have been experiencing any side effects after consuming any food from Guzman Y Gomez’s Tanjong Katong outlet, the SFA would love to hear from you.

You can contact them via the online feedback form here.