Wok Hey apologises, admits SOP was not followed after Stomper slams their earlier response

F&B chain Wok Hey has apologised after insects were seen on wok brushes at its Compass One outlet and provided more details about the lapse.

Stomper Anonymous had captured a video showing winged insects crawling on unkempt and worn-looking brushes at the store on Monday morning (Apr 17). She noticed the concerning sight at around 7.15am, before the stall's opening hours.

Stomp reported on Thursday that the Singapore Food Agency is investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, a Wok Hey spokesman told Stomp that insects might have been attracted to the store's "open premises", adding, "Rest assured that as a part of our daily operating procedures, our team will clean the apparatus before usage."

To this, Anonymous said, "I am surprised by Wok Hey's bad response" and explained why she thought so.

Wok Hey has since issued an updated statement regarding the matter.

The statement sent to Stomp on Friday said: "At Wok Hey, we take all hygiene matters at our outlets seriously and work to ensure that we keep to the highest standards for cleanliness and food hygiene.

"Our staff follow a stringent standard operating procedure when it comes to cleaning processes in all our outlets, and we take the additional step of engaging a professional cleaning company to deep clean and sanitise all outlets after operating hours on a daily basis. Additionally, we engage pest control services to service all outlets monthly to ensure our outlets remain pest- free.

"As part of standard operating procedure, all our cooking apparatus undergo a cleaning process prior to daily food preparation.

"In this instance, the post-closure cleaning standard for the wok brushes to be done the night prior was not followed, and we apologise for that.

"We do believe that our double cleaning procedure (after closing and before opening our outlets) ensures the highest possible hygiene standards at Wok Hey.

"That said, we will do better. We are working closely with all staff and contractors to ensure that we maintain the highest hygiene standards.

"Striving for continuous improvement, we will fine-tune our processes to make sure that every meal from Wok Hey continues to be safe, tasty and nutritious."