According to Dawan News, the video recording the incident was posted on June 13 and immediately attracted public attention.

During the meal that day, two diners ordered spicy hotpot and mushroom hotpot and insisted that they did not order any black dishes. However, immediately after eating, their tongues turned black.

Upon receiving feedback, the restaurant representative said that this phenomenon may have occurred because the iron pot had been used for a long time and was then cooked with hot chili.

A Dawan News reporter interviewed the person involved. The female diner said that she and her mother ordered dishes such as bullfrog, potatoes, bean sprouts, braised pig's feet, chicken feet, and braised sausage that day.

In addition to her tongue turning black, after returning home, her stomach also ached.

In the comments section below the video, many netizens said they also experienced similar problems after eating hot pot at this restaurant, and posted pictures of their tongues turning black.

On June 17, a representative of the company operating the hot pot restaurant chain said that they were very concerned about the incident, and immediately closed the related restaurant, sealed the entire batch of dishes, pots and pans... and sent them for testing to investigate the cause of the incident.

This person also said that the management company wants to pay all costs and accompany customers to specialized facilities for in-depth health check-ups.

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The cause of the diner's black tongue after the meal is still unknown. Photo: Dawan News

To date, the cause of the customer's black tongue after the meal has not been determined. The company confirmed that it must wait for test results from a professional agency.

The restaurant where the incident occurred also stressed that the ingredients used there, including salt, comply with national standards.

In response to netizens' speculations about reusing pot bases, the company pledged that it would never let that happen and that the bases used in all restaurants were disposable.

Meanwhile, staff from the Hangzhou Food and Drug Administration said they could not analyze where the problem occurred just by looking at the photos and the content of the customer's complaint.

On June 19, on many social media groups, a video clip was circulated recording images of employees of a bun cha restaurant in Hanoi washing meat with charcoal water and grease water.