Takeaway owner fined for cigarette butt in noodles

The owner of a Rotorua takeaway business has been fined $1500 after a customer ate a cigarette butt mixed into her Chinese food.

Michael Wong, also known as Jing Huang, who owns Oppies Fish and Chips and Chinese, pleaded guilty in Rotorua District Court this week to breaching the Food Act.

The court was told a woman bought two dishes of smorgasbord Chinese food from the takeaway on October 15.

While eating the food she chewed on something tough, spat the food out and found a cigarette butt.

She contacted the Rotorua District Council's health officer who told her to take the food and butt to Toi Te Ora Health.

A Toi Te Ora Health official asked Mr Wong how a cigarette butt got into a noodle dish.

He could not explain how it got there, saying he always smoked outside.

As well as imposing the $1500 fine, Judge Chris McGuire ordered Mr Wong to pay a further $350 analysis costs.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)