Rojak Anyone?

The National Environment Agency has given itself a pat on the shoulder for raising the hygiene standards of Singapore’s food stalls.

More than 90 per cent of Singapore’s food stalls have achieved either an A or B grading for hygiene standards, and there was no stall with D grading, it said.

NEA officers have been actively visiting stalls and distributing educational pamphlets on hygiene to the stall holders in the aftermath of Singapore’s worst mass food poisoning outbreak in April this year.

Three Singaporeans died from eating contaminated food from an Indian Rojak stall which was graded a “B” by NEA. There was one miscarriage and over 100 casualties.

It turned out that it was in fact graded a “C” but somehow the stall holder did not receive the new label. The lapse in surveillance had dealt a blow to NEA’s reputation.

The temporary market committee which was supposed to oversee the cleanliness of the site was not taken to task.

Neither did NEA’s CEO Andrew Tan or the Minister of Environment Yaacob Ibrahim offer Singaporeans any apology. Instead, Singaporeans were blamed for their poor hygiene standards.

The Indian rojak man was subsequently charged in court. There were no updates about his case so far.

Following public furore over the standard of public hygiene at hawker centers and markets, the NEA introduced a series of stringent measures to raise the hygiene level.

Singapore is famous for her cleanliness and efficiency.