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TikTok employees hit by mass food-poisoning in office: ‘toilets all full, vomit on floor’
Over a hundred employees at TikTok-owner ByteDance’s headquarters in Singapore were affected by a mass food poisoning incident on Tuesday.
Over a hundred employees at TikTok-owner ByteDance’s headquarters in Singapore were affected by a mass food poisoning incident on Tuesday.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the Singapore Food Agency and Ministry of Health said 17 people were hospitalised after developing serious gastrointestinal symptoms. Dozens more sought outpatient treatment, recovered without medical care or medicated themselves.
According to CNBC, the affected employees had consumed food served at the ByteDance office on One Raffles Quay in Singapore. Two caterers who supplied the food – Yun Hai Yao and Pu Tien Services – have had their business operations suspended after the food poisoning incident which left the office smelling like vomit.
“Toilets were full”
The Singapore Civil Defense Force told local media outlets that it began to receive complaints from One Raffles Quay around 3 pm on Tuesday (July 30).
An employee of TikTok-owner ByteDance told Central News Asia that staffers began to feel nauseous after consuming the lunch served at the office. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the employee said: “Every single floor had people vomiting, which was quite gross.”
“The toilets were all full and there were people lying on the floor. The whole office smelled like vomit,” said the 28-year-old employee, adding that vomiting and diarrhoea were the most common symptoms.
They added that the scene in office was “quite chaotic” as people vomited on the floor. The employee, who declined to be named, said that at least 10 people were seen lying on the floor in pain, waiting for paramedics to attend to them.
A total of 130 employees were affected by the food poisoning breakout. Seventeen ambulances were reportedly sent to the ByteDance headquarters to attend to the patients.
A ByteDance spokesperson told CNBC that the company is “investigating the matter and working with the relevant authorities on this.” The emailed statement added that Byetdance had “taken immediate steps to support all affected employees, including working with emergency services to provide care.”
