Shropshire Council investigates claim of "spiked" vegan food
By Emma Lake
Complaints were made to Shropshire Council after the chef and part-owner of an Italian restaurant in Shifnal claimed in a Facebook group that a dish served to a vegan customer had been "spiked".
On 30 December, Laura Goodman of Carlini restaurant reportedly wrote: "Pious, judgmental vegan (who I spent all day cooking for) has gone to bed, still believing she's a vegan."
A separate post read: "Spiked a vegan a few hours ago."
A spokesman for Shropshire Council's regulatory services said: "We have received complaints in relation to this matter and are currently investigating. We're therefore unable to comment further at this time."
After the posts appeared in media reports, the restaurant's TripAdvisor and Google pages received dozens of one star ratings.
One Google review read: "To boast on social media about her deliberate contamination of food shows a distinct lack of professionalism and judgment on her behalf.
"People are vegan for many different reasons. Whatever these customers' choices are, she did not have the right to interfere with them.
"On another worrying note, there are many people who are vegan for allergy reasons and if that had been the case she could have caused the customer to go into anaphylactic shock."
Carlini's Google profile has since been removed along with reviews left on TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor's media relations manager Hayley Coleman explained: "The media commentary on Carlini sparked a bout of reviews on the property's listing on TripAdvisor that did not relate to first-hand experiences.
"In light of this activity, we determined that a number of reviews for the property contravened our guidelines on first hand experiences and thus were removed."
Since the posts came to light this weekend, there have also been calls for the restaurant to be shut down across social media platforms with reports made to official bodies.
A spokesperson for the Food Standard Agency said: "People should be confident about the food they buy and be able to choose according to their particular requirements, whether for diet and health or for personal taste and preference reasons.
"The description, advertising or presentation of food must not mislead consumers.
"If someone is concerned about being sold food which has been falsely labelled or the information about the food does not properly describe it, they can report it to the business's local authority."
The restaurant's Facebook page has since been removed and the owners have not responded to requests for comment.
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