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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Govt has done much to help hawkers - but to no avail
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->FIRST, I would like to offer my condolences to the families affected by the recent food poisoning incident.
The Government has spent many decades and huge sums of money to subsidise and move hawkers to comfortable surroundings with running water, and proper tables and chairs, to boot.
Unfortunately, hawkers have taken this for granted and this, with poor enforcement to ensure proper use in a sanitised manner, has meant the lustre is invariably lost. Buckets of unwashed dishes lie in front of stalls. Tables are not cleaned properly and floors are wet.
To save time and money, little consideration is paid to how food is handled, prepared and stored. Cooked leftovers are simply reheated and sold the next day. Cutlery and crockery are washed casually, leaving noticeable oil stains behind.
Hawkers selling mixed vegetable meals stand over pots of exposed cooked food with their mouths uncovered, talking to customers and spilling drops of saliva. Premium ice cream sellers are guilty of this too. Fruit sellers handle both fruit and money with gloved hands. Although bakeries now have covered trays, many still push up the covers, leaving bread and cakes exposed to flies and saliva.
Although it is a requirement in the licence application, proper storage of crockery and cutlery after hours leaves much to be desired. These are not kept in cabinets as a mandatory requirement but left in the open overnight, allowing anything to crawl over them.
Strict enforcement of rules is necessary to curb abuse and the authorities should step up the pace without delay. Wong Kok Keong
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->FIRST, I would like to offer my condolences to the families affected by the recent food poisoning incident.
The Government has spent many decades and huge sums of money to subsidise and move hawkers to comfortable surroundings with running water, and proper tables and chairs, to boot.
Unfortunately, hawkers have taken this for granted and this, with poor enforcement to ensure proper use in a sanitised manner, has meant the lustre is invariably lost. Buckets of unwashed dishes lie in front of stalls. Tables are not cleaned properly and floors are wet.
To save time and money, little consideration is paid to how food is handled, prepared and stored. Cooked leftovers are simply reheated and sold the next day. Cutlery and crockery are washed casually, leaving noticeable oil stains behind.
Hawkers selling mixed vegetable meals stand over pots of exposed cooked food with their mouths uncovered, talking to customers and spilling drops of saliva. Premium ice cream sellers are guilty of this too. Fruit sellers handle both fruit and money with gloved hands. Although bakeries now have covered trays, many still push up the covers, leaving bread and cakes exposed to flies and saliva.
Although it is a requirement in the licence application, proper storage of crockery and cutlery after hours leaves much to be desired. These are not kept in cabinets as a mandatory requirement but left in the open overnight, allowing anything to crawl over them.
Strict enforcement of rules is necessary to curb abuse and the authorities should step up the pace without delay. Wong Kok Keong
