Violations of Environmental Public Health Act by Food Courts

16 Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) over the past three years, whether there is an increasing trend of eateries that have been ordered to shut down or suspend operations due to violations of the Environmental Public Health Act; and (b) what are the preventive measures that NEA will put in place to improve the compliance level of eateries with the Act.

17 Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) what is the trend of food hygiene at food courts; (b) what are some of the contributing factors to poor food hygiene in these food courts; and (c) whether there are plans to tighten their general cleanliness and hygiene given the reports of cockroach and rat problems at some food courts.

The Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources): Mdm Speaker, with your permission, may I take Question Nos 16 and 17 together?

Mdm Speaker: Yes, please.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Thank you. The National Environment Agency (NEA) currently licenses more than 37,000 food retail establishments, including restaurants, food kiosks, caterers and food stalls within hawker centres, coffee shops and food courts, to ensure that the food sold is prepared hygienically and safe for consumption.

NEA conducts regular inspections of food retail establishments to ensure compliance with hygiene standards and takes enforcement actions against establishments that do not practise proper food hygiene. Common hygiene-related infringements include failing to register food handlers, selling food that is unclean and failing to keep the premises clean or free of pest infestation. Licensees are liable for a maximum fine of $2,000 upon conviction of such offences. They are also awarded demerit points for each offence committed and, upon accumulating 12 demerit points within a 12-month period, their licences will be suspended for two weeks as an additional penalty. Recalcitrant licensees may have their licences cancelled.

In 2016, NEA carried out more than 148,000 inspections and over 3,200 enforcement actions were taken against food retail establishments, an increase from around 2,500 in 2013. About a third of the enforcement actions were taken against stalls in food courts, coffee shops or canteens. Correspondingly, the number of licences that were suspended increased from 62 in 2013 to 132 in 2016. Of the 132 licences suspended in 2016, 60 involved stalls in food courts, coffee shops and canteens, up from 14 in 2013.

Meanwhile, the food poisoning incidence rate at food retail establishments had remained low, being consistently maintained at 3.2 food poisoning outbreaks per 1,000 food retail establishments or below since 2013. This means that 0.32% or less of the food retail establishments were implicated in food poisoning outbreaks each year. This suggests that the systems put in place were effective deterrents against poor food hygiene practices. Nonetheless, we cannot be complacent and must continue to maintain our strict stance on food safety.

NEA has implemented programmes, such as the Food Hygiene Officer (FHO) Scheme for restaurants, food courts, school canteens and caterers and the Food Safety Management System (FSMS) for caterers. These programmes are aimed at ensuring that operators of food retail establishments put in place preventive measures to maintain a high standard of food and personal hygiene among food handlers, as well as to upkeep the cleanliness of the premises.

NEA officers educate operators on proper food hygiene practices during inspections. In addition, NEA carries out outreach and educational programmes, such as the "My Eatery Shines" programme in the South-West District and the "Good Refuse Management in Food Shops" and "CLEAN Food Everyday − Food Caterers" programmes in the North-West District. Through these programmes, NEA works with operators and stall owners to improve their cleaning and refuse management regimes and partners the grassroots organisations to educate the public on keeping food shops clean.

Members of the public can check the individual food retail establishments' hygiene records and suspension records by visiting our NEA website, using the myENV mobile application or scanning the Quick Response (QR) code on the licences displayed at the food retail establishments. Members of the public who come across poor hygiene practices in food retail establishments can contact our NEA's 24-hour Call Centre to provide information for NEA's investigation.

Mdm Speaker: Dr Tan Wu Meng.

Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answer. I have got two supplementary questions. Firstly, would NEA consider arranging some form of compulsory training for stallholders and eatery operators to help improve the overall compliance with public health standards?

Secondly, given the role of the supporting staff in an eatery, would NEA consider making it mandatory for all workers in an eatery to have basic public health training? So, including the cleaning crew and those collecting the plates so that they understand the very key role that each team member has in protecting public health.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for his supplementary question and suggestion. First, NEA currently requires all food handlers, that is, those who prepare or handle food, to attend and pass a basic food hygiene course, as well as a refresher course to ensure sustained awareness of food hygiene practices. So, the basic food hygiene course will have courses on personal and food hygiene, proper food storage, upkeep of cleanliness of the premises and so on.

But in addition to this, NEA also regularly sends advisories as well as collaterals, like posters and stickers, to our food retail establishments, which they can then use as informational materials for their workers. Additionally, we also regularly conduct sharing, briefing sessions as well as provide newsletters to all our stakeholders, including the licensees as well as the food and beverage (F&B) associations on food hygiene practices as well as prevailing hygiene situations and so on in that industry. Again, this can be shared, not just with the operators but also with all their workers.

Additionally, as I have said earlier, we have an FHO scheme, and restaurants of a certain size as well as food courts, canteens, caterers, are required to appoint a senior staff, a supervisor or operations manager, and even the sous chef, to be trained and appointed as FHOs so that they are responsible for implementing and ensuring good food hygiene practices as well as supervision, and ensuring that their other workers also comply.

In addition, when we consider if we should mandate all workers in the food retail establishments to be trained under the Basic Food Hygiene Course (BFHC), we need to take into consideration several factors like the practicality of doing it, the effectiveness as well as the possible impact on business cost. Given the nature of the F&B industry, with high turnover, and a large number of part-time or temporary workers, it will be a challenge to require all workers to do this, not to add that there will be impact on business cost. In fact, mandating that all their food handlers must be trained under BFHC and registered before they can start work is already raised as a pain point by the F&B industry although we need to ensure that this is complied with. One of the key infringements is using unregistered food handlers.

At this point, our view is that it is not necessary to register or mandate BFHC for all other workers, except the food handlers, where there is really no direct impact on food safety as well as public health. But notwithstanding this, let me say that we will continue to ensure that we enforce strictly on infringements.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Melvin Yong.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Tanjong Pagar): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answer. My supplementary question relates to the cleaning arrangements at our food centres. My understanding is that table cleaning is often managed by NEA, while the cleaning of the floor is often by the Town Councils. Because of that, sometimes I hear feedback from the residents that those cleaning the tables would just sweep the items onto the floor because it is a different set of cleaners. Would NEA consider reviewing such arrangements?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Again, I thank the Member for the question and suggestion. Let me say that if the hawker centre is managed by NEA and it is not HDB-owned, the hawkers' association will work together with us in terms of procuring the cleaning contractors and ensuring the cleanliness of the area and so on.

What the Member is referring to is when it is HDB-owned and the Town Council is in charge of the common areas, including the hawker centres, and then the cleaning is procured by the hawkers' association. NEA will assist in the coordination and work closely with the Town Councils as well as the hawkers' associations to address challenges if there are two different contractors. In relation, say, in the case of a food court, which was the original question filed by the Member, then there would not be this issue.

But having said that, as I have noted, we know that every infringement is one infringement too many because it concerns food safety and public health and, therefore, we will continue to look at ways to tackle this and prevent such occurrences.

Mdm Speaker: Dr Tan Wu Meng.

Dr Tan Wu Meng: Just one more question to the Senior Minister of State. I thank the Senior Minister of State for her explanation about the training process and how it is continually being improved. If not already done so, could the training also involve descriptions and updates of case studies of previous outbreaks so as to both build awareness and vigilance among trainees to avoid repeating the same mistakes?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for his suggestion. I would assume that under the syllabus when the lecturers do this training, that could have already been shared. But having said that, I think that it is a good idea and I will make sure this is part of the training sessions and sharings.