The family who is suing Sydney's Coogee Bay Hotel for allegedly serving them human faeces has claimed the excrement had been pre-prepared by hotel staff and wasn't necessarily meant for them.
Jessica Whyte, who ate the "poo" from a bowl of complimentary ice cream while at the pub with her husband Steve and three children three weeks ago, told the Nine Network the dish appeared to have been made before they even arrived.
"It was compacted down and frozen in a frozen glass … obviously they had it ready to target somebody," she said.
The family had made several complaints to the hotel staff about its service and prices, but not enough to warrant the faeces serving, Mrs Whyte said.
"I don't think that our complaints were big enough (for us) to be targeted except it was already ready and they thought, yeah we'll send it to them," Mrs Whyte said.
Mrs Whyte said she felt violently ill after she ate the "chocolate".
"I dug into it and put it in my mouth and, as it hit room temperature in my mouth, the stench and the taste was so bad I panicked.
"I spat it in a napkin and I ran and threw up."
The family claim independent testing of the brown substance served to them confirmed it had "properties similar to human excreta".
They now plan to sue the hotel and make a formal complaint to the NSW Health Department.
The Coogee Bay Hotel has welcomed the involvement of health authorities to try to determine how human excreta could have found its way into the dessert
General manager Tony Williams leapt to the hotel's defence today, saying the refurbished open-plan kitchen had been open for just three weeks, and conformed to the highest hygiene standards.
"We categorically stand behind the high quality of our food and hygiene standards in the new brasserie and kitchen," Mr Williams told reporters.
"Consequently, if indeed this allegation is proved to have occurred, we believe it must have been some form of sabotage."
NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald agreed a "hostile act" must have taken place.
"I can't see, given the nature of the food business, how this could occur in any other way," he told reporters.
"It would be pretty impossible to think about how this would be occurring without there being a deliberate act of treachery," he said.
The Food Authority would be willing to investigate once a formal complaint from the Whytes had been lodged, the minister said.
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