A crayfish restaurant in Yangpu District has been ordered to close pending an investigation into an alleged outbreak of food poisoning.
The eatery is one of 11 in the city operating under the Zheng Wen Qi Crayfish Donburi brand name, the district government said yesterday, adding that food safety inspectors are currently conducting checks at the 10 other outlets.
The closure notice was issued after an investigation by the Yangpu District Market Supervision Administration found evidence that eight people had fallen sick after eating at the restaurant, which is the latest addition to the chain and opened last Thursday.
Officials said they decided to close the restaurant in the Wujiaochang area of Yangpu after receiving a tip-off from an anonymous source.
According to the informant, a number of diners reported suffering from diarrhea, stomach aches and vomiting after eating donburi — a dish of crayfish meat on a bed of rice — at the new outlet.
Zheng Wenqi, the founder of Jiangsu Province-based Xuzhou Yihong Catering Management Co, which owns and operates the restaurants, said in a statement that all of the ingredients served to customers had passed the necessary safety and quality checks.
All of the products for the company's trademark dish are sourced, prepared and packaged by suppliers in east China's Anhui Province, he said.
On just its second day of opening, the Wujiaochang outlet served 1,300 portions of donburi, Zheng said, adding that the company is cooperating with the official probe.
Food safety watchdogs said they expect to complete their investigation within the week.
After the safety checks were launched, one of the company's outlets in Putuo District closed voluntarily, officials said.
Meanwhile, an employee at the branch that was ordered to close posted on social media yesterday that the food poisoning allegations were defamatory and had been made by a rival firm.
An entry for the outlet on restaurant review website dianping.com garnered 190 comments, of which 100 were complaints from alleged customers.
Whatever the facts of the case, the probe would appear to have had a detrimental impact on the restaurant's business. Several of its outlets, including those in People's Square and at MetroCity in Xuhui District, appeared less busy yesterday.
Not everyone was put off by the controversy, however.
At the MetroCity outlet, local man Bill Liu told Shanghai Daily he was unperturbed by the alleged happenings in Yangpu.
"I like crayfish, and they're not the same outlet, right?" he said as he ate his donburi.
