Gourmetz fined S$13,000 after 45 River Valley Primary students got gastroenteritis

In mid-January 2026, students at River Valley Primary School reported gastroenteritis symptoms after eating lunches supplied by caterer Gourmetz from the school's central kitchen. The Singapore Food Agency counted 45 affected students, one of whom was hospitalised and has since recovered. On October 9, 2026, Gourmetz pleaded guilty to three charges — failing to keep its premises properly maintained and clean, falsely labelling food, and storing food unprotected from contamination — with three more considered, and was fined S$13,000, paid the same day.

A joint inspection by the SFA and the Communicable Diseases Agency on January 16 found chiller rooms that were not clean or well maintained: a damaged rubber gasket on the meat chiller door, scum accumulated on the seafood chiller rack, and black spots on the processed-vegetable chiller ceiling. Sauce sat in a stained thermal tub and marinated chicken on a food-stained trolley. Two ready-to-eat sets produced for the school — steam chicken rice and garlic fried rice — contained Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, above the permissible limit.

A follow-up inspection on January 28 found the lapses continued: frozen pastries left uncovered in the raw-material freezer and raw marinated chicken kept on dirty plastic pallets and trolleys. Bento sets were labelled 'Ready by: 8.30AM' when they had in fact been packed at about 6.48am — a false stamp that gave the impression the food would last to a later hour. At court, asked for the company's mitigation, Gourmetz's representative said he had nothing to say.

S$13,000 fine, paid the day it was imposed; guilty pleas to three charges with three more taken into consideration

Chiller rooms, containers and trolleys used for school meals were visibly unclean — damaged door gaskets, accumulated scum and food stains.

Two ready-to-eat meal sets tested above the permissible limit for Bacillus cereus, the bacterium behind the students' illness.

Bento sets carried false 'Ready by' stamps, making food packed at 6.48am look fresh to 8.30am.

The January 28 follow-up found further storage violations after the first inspection, showing the initial findings had changed nothing.

School-meals catering turns small hygiene lapses into mass illness: dirty trolleys and false 'ready by' stamps are cheap to fix and ruinous once regulators inspect twice.

The court imposed the S$13,000 fine the prosecution had sought, and Gourmetz paid it the same day. The hospitalised student has recovered. The case was built on two inspections sixteen days apart, in January 2026, by the SFA and the Communicable Diseases Agency.