Mouldy danish served in Auckland cafe

Mould inside an apple danish bought in the Botany Town Centre. Photo/ Felicia Leng

A cafe customer was served a mouldy apple danish in an Auckland cafe yesterday morning.

Botany mother Felicia Leng said she was worried about the health and safety standards at Morena Cafe in the Botany Town Centre after biting into her sweet treat to find about five spots of blue-green mould inside.

"It made me feel very sick," Leng told the Herald.

The cafe's owner said the danish was old stock which had accidentally been put out for sale in the morning by a trainee staff member on her first shift.

Leng, who works as a presenter on Chinese TV in New Zealand, said she asked for a refund for both the danish and her coffee, but staff would only refund the food.

"I didn't drink a lot of the coffee but I said 'if you sell that kind of food I can't trust your food safety'."

A staff member was apologetic but another woman, who Leng believed was the manager, was not, and refused to take responsibility for what had happened, she said.

"She said you can go wherever you want to go - it's not our fault."

The cafe is near the Botany library and a lot of parents, like Leng, take their children to eat there.

"I don't care if I get a refund or not - I'm just worried about the food safety. Their attitude is the problem."

Morena Cafe's owner Herdeep Singh said he ordered danishes from a supplier and they had a three-day shelf life.

A staff member working her first shift on Wednesday morning had accidentally mixed expired stock in with the new delivery, he said.

"Our staff member was quite new and she doesn't know to check it."

The danishes looked okay from the outside, but most staff members would have realised they were from three days ago, he said.

"We got an apple danish delivery yesterday morning - the rest of them were supposed to be thrown away."

Singh said his staff members had called him following the incident and told him Leng had been showing people in the cafe the danish, saying the food at the cafe was mouldy.

His staff had tried to resolve the issue at the time, he said.