Business 'ruined' by TV show Target

The owners of an award-winning Auckland cafe wrongly accused by TV3's Target show of selling contaminated food are seeking legal advice after the mistake left them on the brink of bankruptcy.

The producers of the consumer affairs programme were forced to apologise last week after incorrectly stating Ponsonby-based Cafe Cezanne's food had a high reading of faecal coliform.

The episode, which screened on TV3 on June 16, showed an undercover camera segment looking at hygiene standards of several Auckland cafes.

Food was purchased from the cafes and then samples were sent away for labouratory testing, one of which came back with a high reading of faecal coliform.

Production company Top Shelf said further investigation revealed an error in the way the samples were coded which meant Top Shelf was unable to confirm which cafe produced the high faecal coliform count. Cafe Cezanne owners Rod Williams and Jackie Wilkinson said the error had greatly affected their business, The Herald on Sunday reported.

They feared they may go bankrupt and had taken legal advice on their next step,

M s Wilkinson said they contacted Target before the show aired to let them know there was a mistake with the food sample.

"We knew there were a few errors in their facts but they went ahead anyway and we have noticed a serious downturn in clientele since then," she said.

Top Shelf said the incident was completely unacceptable and it had apologised unreservedly to Cafe Cezanne for the mistake.

It noted Cafe Cezanne was recently awarded an A food grading by the Auckland City Council.

  - NZPA