Magazines Archives - 2009 May

High stakes ensure integrity in Singapore
Story 5 - Focus

Remember the milk scandal that hit China last year? When over 300,000 infants in the country were poisoned by melaminetainted milk formula and six died, the region witnessed first-hand the grave repercussions of a slack in food-safety regulations.

Even Singapore, dubbed one of the region’s safest countries where food is concerned, had its reputation sullied last month by news that more than 100 people had fallen seriously ill after consuming Indian rojak (a mixed dish of potato, salad, egg, fried bean curd, shrimp fritters and sometimes squid, eaten with a savoury sweet-and-spicy peanut sauce) at a heartland food market. There were two reported deaths.

Close on the heels of this was another hygiene breach at a steamboat restaurant where diners are served raw food items cooked at the dining table in a simmering pot of broth. Although the impact was smaller, many diners suffered.

Two years earlier, local bakery Prima Deli, too, had a brush with food-safety concerns. Its chocolate cakes were found to contain the bacteria salmonella enteritidis, leading to a nationwide shutdown of the chain’s outlets for almost a month. This had reportedly cost the group millions of dollars in compensation to franchisees, and stricken customers.

“When tainted food hits home, consumers’ confidence in the food-safety regulatory structure that exists will be lost,” states Lawrence Low, food-safety director of Gourmet Food Safety Consultancy. The issue impacts tourism, the economy and employment, he adds.

Without natural food resources, the city-state is heavily dependent on imports for both raw and processed foods, making it vulnerable.

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