Photo: Samurai Bowl / Facebook
A Christchurch restaurant owner who served recalled ramen meals to customers and breached immigration law has been sentenced to six months home detention and fined $30,000.
Xinchen Liu, who owned the Japanese eatery Samurai Bowl on Colombo Street, appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to trading in the recalled frozen meals, supplying false or misleading information to immigration officers and helping three employees breach their visa conditions to work for her.
Testing identified unsafe levels of staphylococcus aureus bacteria in samples of the meals, which led to a June 2019 New Zealand Food Safety recall notice of all frozen Samurai Bowl ramen meals made since she had taken over the business.
New Zealand Food Safety acting deputy director-general Jenny Bishop said Liu confirmed the recall had gone ahead, providing pictures to food safety officers.
"Most people do the right thing, but Liu didn't do as she claimed and stored the meals in freezers. Some of them were defrosted and made available to staff," she said.
The Samurai Bowl brand frozen ramen noodle meal range was recalled after the product was found to contain a toxin produced by Staphylococcus bacteria. Photo: Supplied / MPI
"Miso soup and meat from recalled meals was also served to customers at her restaurant.
"This was deliberate and reckless behaviour and Liu's actions had potential to cause sickness and health risk for a number of customers.
"The bacteria found in the food can cause nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea. The consequences can be serious for people with compromised immune systems.
"Food recalls are conducted to protect consumers from potential harm. People rightly expect food businesses sell food that is safe and suitable."
Liu was fined $20,000 for the Food Act breach and a further $10,000 for the immigration offences.
Immigration New Zealand investigators visited her Colombo Street restaurant in May 2021, when she told them a migrant was not working for her, but other officers were at her Papanui restaurant where they found the person working as a chef.
Liu then told the immigration officer that the migrant had a visa and could work for her company when she knew that was not true.
She also claimed the migrant was volunteering for 20 hours per week when they were employed as a chef and had been rostered to work between 37 and 78 hours per week for the previous 50 weeks.
Immigration New Zealand national manager investigations Jason Perry said Liu admitted aiding and abetting three employees to breach their visa conditions and work for her when she knew they were not entitled to.
"[The] sentence sends a strong message that breaching immigration law and knowingly supplying false or misleading information to immigration officials will not be tolerated and anyone doing so will be held to account," he said.
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