Pancake restaurant chain Slappy Cakes apologises after customer finds glass fragments in smoothie drink

SINGAPORE — The management of pancake restaurant chain Slappy Cakes apologised on Tuesday (Nov 19) after a customer found glass fragments in a smoothie drink she had ordered from an outlet at Plaza Singapura mall.

In an email response to TODAY’s queries, a spokesperson for Slappy Cakes said that its internal investigations found that a “staff member at the drink station has admitted that she had accidentally broken a glass” last Sunday.

“She cleared the broken glass piece on the floor, but did not realise that a piece of the glass had landed in the blender which was used to prepare the smoothie,” the spokesperson added.

In the statement, the restaurant indicated that the female customer and her child had gone to a hospital as a result of consuming the glass fragments. The conditions of the customers were not disclosed.

Slappy Cakes is owned by the TungLok Group, which is listed on the Singapore Exchange.

It said that the staff member involved had been transferred out of the drinks station as a result of her negligence.

“We will decide on the appropriate course of action to take on her and continue to monitor her performance,” Slappy Cakes said. 

“We had also immediately conducted a training session with our operations staff and stressed our standard operating procedures. A thorough clean-up of the restaurant premise had also been done.”

Contrary to some media reports which stated that an employee had commented that the incident was “a small matter or a small issue”, Slappy Cakes clarified in its statement to TODAY that its “staff did not make any such comments and we certainly do not take this incident lightly”.

“From our staff interviews and our closed-circuit TV footage, our staff was seen bowing to the customer in apology several times. The dine-in bill was also waived,” the spokesperson said.

The police were called to the scene after the incident happened, but the spokesperson from Slappy Cakes said that as there was "no sign of foul play, the police handed the case to the Singapore Food Agency".

"We are currently cooperating with them and offering our full assistance.” 

When contacted by TODAY, the Singapore Food Agency said that it is “investigating the matter”.

The restaurant chain — which has two other outlets at Resorts World Sentosa and The Grandstand on Turf Club Road — said that after the incident, it has replaced its drinking glasses with acrylic ware and is “making arrangements to procure polycarbonate wares” which are of better quality.

“The management of Slappy Cakes has (also) visited the customer and her child at the hospital (on Monday) afternoon. We deeply regret the incident and offer our sincerest apologies to Mr and Mrs Wu and their family, (the customers). We will continue to provide them with any assistance required.”

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