A customer, who wished to be known as Amy, made a horrific discovery when she opened a carton of quail eggs that she bought from a Sheng Siong outlet at Junction Nine mall in Yishun on 11 April.
When she opened the carton to cook the eggs last Tuesday (16 April), she was “shocked and disgusted” to find “big, fat maggots” wriggling next to one of the eggs, adding that she discarded the entire carton afterwards. The expiry date on the carton indicated 19 April.
After footage of the incident was posted to citizen journalism website Stomp on Monday (22 April), a Sheng Siong spokesman told the site that they are grateful that Amy has brought the situation to their knowledge.
The supermarket chain has since apologised to her and even offered her a refund for the distress.
The spokesman also stated that an immediate and thorough check on the quail eggs was conducted following Amy’s feedback.
He added that the fragile nature of eggs could result in an infestation if there are any cracks in the shell. Hence, Sheng Siong will be working closely with its egg supplier to prevent future eventualities.
“As we value food safety and quality, we encourage customers to reach out to us when they encounter similar incidents,” he said.
Less than two months ago, a similar incident took place when a customer brought home quail eggs from NTUC FairPrice. Earlier in January this year, another customer was given a refund after discovering maggots in live crabs he purchased from FairPrice Finest.
The Singapore Food Agency advised customers on its websites to purchase eggs with clean shells and to handle them carefully as cracked eggs may be contaminated with bacteria.