SCHOOL CANTEENS (Standard of food hygiene)

Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng asked the Minister for the Environment what plans his Ministry has to monitor the quality and hygiene of food sold in school canteens.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment (Mr Chor Yeok Eng) (for the Minister for the Environment): ( In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir. inspectors from my Ministry carry out regular inspections of school canteens to ensure that a high standard of food hygiene is maintained. Food samples are taken regularly for analysis. Stallholders and their assistants are medically screened and inoculated against typhoid. In addition, individual schools have school canteen committees to look into the daily operations and quality of food sold by canteen stallholders.

My Ministry will take enforcement action against any stallholder found operating under unhygienic conditions or selling contaminated food. In the past one year, 18 stall-holders in various school canteens were convicted and fined in court for selling contaminated food, not maintaining clean stalls and for unhygienic handling of food.

Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng (Mountbatten): Sir, may I know whether the number of inspectors that the Ministry of the Environment has is sufficient to carry out the so-called regular inspections which he referred to, and what is the time-frequency of the regular inspections that he is talking about?

Mr Chor Yeok Eng: ( In Mandarin): Sir, as far as the staff is concerned, it depends on the circumstances. For example, if an out- break of an infectious disease has occurred, we will have some difficulty in deploying our staff. If there is no outbreak of an infectious disease then, generally, the number of inspectors is quite sufficient to go round inspecting these places at least once a month. If any complaints are received, they will make more frequent visits to the schools concerned.