'I was lucky to spit it out': Woman says mouth cut by glass shard while eating doughnut at AMK Hub

One woman's sweet treat turned into a sour experience after she bit into a shard of glass embedded in her doughnut.

Not wanting others to experience the same pain as she did, Thipjoy Napatsanan, 35, took to Facebook on Wednesday (July 20) to document her experience that afternoon.

She had purchased a Double Choc Cake doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts' outlet in AMK Hub. While biting into it, she was cut by a glass shard measuring 1cm x 1.5cm in the pastry.

After spitting it out, she "angrily walked back to the store" to confront the staff who called their manager for advice.

Thipjoy added that she could not understand what the staff members were discussing as they spoke in Malay.

The customer waited for 10 minutes before the staff apologised and refunded her the full amount of $2.20. 

In her Facebook post, Thipjoy shared her concerns about the incident, saying that she is worried because her daughter buys doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts every day after school. 

"This time I was still lucky to spit out [the glass shard] in time. If my daughter eats this doughnut or another child eats it. [sic] How will it be?" she said. 

She also wondered who would be "responsible for surgery" if she had swallowed the shard and it got "stuck in her intestines". 

While that did not happen, Thipjoy, who holds a long-term visit pass and is married to a Singaporean, told AsiaOne that the shard had cut the left side of her mouth, causing it to bleed. 

While the cut wasn't very deep, she erred on the side of caution and visited a doctor who gave her a medicinal mouthwash. 

She claimed that the manager who spoke with her on the phone also "challenged" her as if she could "not believe" that Thipjoy had been injured by the glass shard in the doughnut.

When the customer said she wanted to see a doctor, the manager allegedly asked how serious the cut was and requested that staff make Thipjoy open her mouth to check on the injury. 

Thipjoy also shared with AsiaOne her email correspondence that day with Sandy Yu, director of Golden Donuts which operates the Dunkin' Donuts chain in Singapore.

In the email, Yu said that the team is "very concerned" about the incident, explaining that they "do not have any glass utensils in their kitchen or stores" and there's a need for them to do an "urgent investigation". 

"We are sorry that the object has injured you, and are relieved that it was not worse," she wrote. 

Yu also apologised for keeping Thipjoy waiting as the manager was at another location at the time and could only speak to her over the phone.

Addressing the customer's concern about staff speaking Malay during the incident, Yu said that it was "rude to do so when [Thipjoy] did not understand the language."

Additionally, Yu reassured Thipjoy by saying: "[The staff] do not think that you are lying, because you visit us often and they say you have always been pleasant." 

Dunkin' Donuts also asked the customer to send them a photo of the medical report and bill if she had sought medical attention for the injury. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Dunkin' Donuts and Singapore Food Agency for comment. 

This isn't the only case of a customer finding a foreign object in their food. In May last year, a woman found a rusty nail in her nasi lemak purchased from Crave Nasi Lemak's outlet at Compass One. 

She said that the nail was hidden in the chilli paste, making it hard to spot. 

Another similar incident in 2020 involved a child finding glass pieces of varying sizes in her bottle of apple juice.

Her family had initially thought it was a piece of plastic until the girl finished her drink and found more shards at the bottom of the bottle. 

melissateo@asiaone.com