Two cases of rats being spotted at food courts in Singapore with pictures snapped and posted on the Internet has really started to get me upset over one, the level of hygiene and cleanliness at some of these places and two, a potentially related problem - the issue of overcrowding in Singapore.
The presence of rats highlights only the tip of a more serious underlying issue we have with food centres. Current laws seem to penalise stalls preparing foods by rating them poorly or suspending them for unhygienic practices. However, I am not sure if centralised handling services used by food courts where a third party manages discarded foods and washes utensils gets properly assessed by the relevant authorities on hygiene. I have on many occasions witnessed increasing numbers of food outlets which employ centralised cleaning staff who at times do not even seem to be adequately trained to clear and clean tables and used food utensils. Should the Ministry of Environment be looking into this seriously, you bet I think they should!
Now we move to the potential root of the problem: overcrowding. I read in The Straits Times that the Singapore government had originally planned to have a 5 million population by 2040. Guess what? We have reached this figure in 2011! With so many people crowding our malls and food outlets, it is no surprise that incidences of vermin and pests have grown as well. Many of our food outlets at popular places are not coping well with the traffic, but perhaps more importantly, they are unable to hire the right supervisory people with high hygiene standards to manage their cleaning staff and implement adequate pest control measures. Too many people - that's my take. Can we just slow down our ambitious growth plans and seriously reduce the influx of immigrants while putting in place measures to bring up the quality of hygiene again? Seriously, our quality of life will continue to degrade if we do not address these issues right now.
~ Jin Ghee
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