An award-winning Auckland bakery has temporarily closed after receiving the lowest possible food safety rating, with the owner confessing the real reason after earlier claiming it was for “family reasons”.

Co-owner of Blockhouse Bay eatery Levain, Sean Vo, came clean in a social media post early this morning, saying he initially lied about the reason out of “fear, shame, and a desire to protect my family and staff from immediate judgment”.

“When we announced our temporary closure for ‘family reasons’, it wasn’t the whole truth. The reality is that following a recent Auckland Council inspection, Levain was handed an E grade.”

An E grade is the lowest possible food safety rating and leads to enforcement action by the council.

The council’s website said businesses which have received the grade “have had a critical issue relating to food safety, and have been closed as a result”.

Businesses are allowed to trade again once they prove standards have increased to an acceptable level.

The artisan bakery is listed as having the E grade on the Auckland Council website.

In the Facebook post, Vo apologised for not being transparent about the business’s closure.

“That was a mistake, and I am deeply sorry for not being transparent with you from the very beginning.”

He labelled the food safety judgment a “painful wake-up call”.

“While the issues were operational and compliance-related rather than a reflection of the love we put into our baking, there are absolutely no excuses. You deserve the highest standards of food safety, and we fell short.”

In an effort to improve, the business has hired professional deep cleaners and compliance experts to overhaul the kitchen and storage.

It has also addressed the structural and maintenance issues raised by inspectors while staff had been retrained to learn “strict daily compliance logs and food safety protocols”, Vo said.

The bakery was working with the council to fast-track re-inspection.

“Thank you for your patience, your critique, and your ongoing support. We will be back, we will be better, and we will be completely transparent”, Vo said to end the post.

Vo and the bakery’s Bacon and Egg pie was crowned the country’s best, winning the Gold Award in the 2025 Supreme Pie Awards.

Understanding food grades

Auckland Council issues food safety certificates to ensure customers know what they are buying is safe to eat, according to its website.

Inspectors take a business’s process control, environmental control, food safety behaviour, confidence in management and compliance history into account when issuing a grade.

The grades range from A to E, with the former being the highest.

The two lowest D and E mean the outlet likely has issues which result in food being “unsafe or unsuitable”.