Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images
- TikTok parent company ByteDance had a mass food poisoning incident at its headquarters on Tuesday.
- 130 individuals had gastroenteritis symptoms after dining in ByteDance's staff canteen in Singapore.
- "The whole office smelled like vomit," one employee told local news outlet CNA.
TikTok parent company ByteDance's headquarters in Singapore were left smelling like vomit after a mass food poisoning incident on Tuesday.
The Chinese tech giant provides staff with free daily lunches. ByteDance employees can choose between two buffet lines, a salad bar, or even get takeout on the company's dime, local news outlet CNA reported on Wednesday, citing employees they'd spoken to.
But things took a nasty turn on Tuesday after some staff members ate at one of the buffet lines, an employee who identified himself as Andre told CNA.
ByteDance had hired two food caterers — Yun Hai Yao and Pu Tien Services — to run each of the buffet lines. The Singapore Food Agency suspended one of Yun Hai Yao's branches and Pu Tien's catering kitchen on Wednesday.
"Every single floor had people vomiting, which was quite gross," Andre told CNA.
Another ByteDance employee told CNA that things turned "quite chaotic," with people starting to feel nauseous about an hour after lunch.
"The toilets were all full and there were people lying on the floor. The whole office smelled like vomit," the employee said, adding that the company's cleaners were left scrambling to clean up the mess.
Emergency services were later called in to tackle the situation. A total of 17 ambulances were sent to ByteDance's office, the Singapore Civil Defence Force told Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times.
Over 100 individuals hit with food poisoning
The food left 130 individuals with gastroenteritis symptoms, the Singapore Food Agency and the country's health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
"17 were hospitalized and are currently stable. The rest have sought outpatient treatment, self-medicated, or recovered without treatment," the statement added.
A ByteDance spokesperson told Bloomberg on Tuesday that they were assisting local authorities with the investigation.
The company said that it had taken "immediate steps to support all affected employees" in the wake of the incident, per a statement obtained by Bloomberg.
"We will suspend our catering kitchen to cooperate with the authorities and await the results of the investigations. All our restaurants will continue operations," one of the caterers, Pu Tien said in a statement on Wednesday, per The Straits Times.
The other caterer, Yun Hai Yao, told Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao that they were awaiting for the results of the investigation because the "affected individuals didn't just eat food that was prepared by them." Yun Hai Yao added that its other branches would continue to operate.
But the catering company declined to comment when CNA visited their office on Wednesday, with staff member members even threatening to call the police.
Representatives for ByteDance, Pu Tien, and Yun Hai Yao didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.