A MITCHELLS Plain coffee shop has been busted for serving mense ou koek.
The City of Cape Town confiscated the expired baked goods from Rockstar Coffee at Liberty Promenade shopping centre on Tuesday morning.
Customer Thembile Nikiwe bought cake at Rockstar Coffee at Liberty Promenade shopping centre on Tuesday morning.
He was looking forward to a lekker moist slice of cake but when he lifted the price sticker, he discovered that it was al laas jaar se koek, having expired on New Year’s Day.
Thembile tells IOL: “I went to the shop to buy the cake and found out that it was expired. I went straight to the inspectors and then I went back to the shop.
“They removed all the expired cakes and left the shelves empty. I reported it because there were children who died after consuming expired food.
“My main problem was that they had hidden the price. They told the city that they would refund me and explained that I took the cake from the markdown section.”
The inspectors educated the shop owner about the dangers of keeping expired food in the shop.
Rockstar Coffee came clean and admitted that there were 20 other expired cakes.
The owner says: “We buy from the supplier, and because of the public holidays, the supplier was closed. My employees put a sticker on the expiry date, and we had to mark them down.
“We have removed all the cakes. From now on, we are going to take more different measures to avoid such things.”
Community Services and Health Mayco member, Councillor Patricia van der Ross adds:
“Further action is pending, including the issuing of a fine in terms of relevant legislation, and follow up visits to ensure compliance going forward.”