Thursday, April 16, 2009

Raise hygiene standards, conduct surprise checks

Comments from Readers

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Letter from Joseph Wong

SOME hawkers do not understand why certain things need to be done. For instance, some wear plastic gloves during food handling, but they also collect money with the gloves still on, before returning to handling food, which defeats the purpose of using the gloves.

So, hawker education must target not just the do’s and don’t’s but also the moral responsibility of stallholders to the public at large.

To make this responsibility more real to the stallholder, the National Environment Agency must make it harder for them to attain an A or B hygiene grading.

Hawkers will start to pay more attention if their livelihood is threatened.


Letter from Arthur Lim

THE Geylang Serai mass food poisoning was an unfortunate incident waiting to happen. But things will remain unchanged if there are no enforcement actions.

It is timely that the NEA gets tough, especially when there are people bent on making a profit without consideration for food safety. I suggest the NEA also require hawkers to use a screen-like “cover” to separate customers from food, to prevent saliva droplets.

Regular, unannounced checks should also be made. If the NEA is restricted by manpower or budget, they can consider hiring part-time inspectors. Given these trying times, I am sure there will be many applicants.


From TODAY, Voices - Monday, 13-April-2009

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