Netizen Worried About Hygiene as Hawker Leaves Vegetables on Floor Basket Amid Nearby Stall Cleaning

Last Updated on 2023-08-22 , 11:59 am

Have you ever had some food outside and then realised how unsanitary the preparation of the food was?

There’s nothing like seeing how badly your food was handled to cause your appetite to vanish.

In this day and age, where cleanliness and food hygiene is valued, unsanitary food preparation practices win food vendors no favours.

One bak kut teh (a Chinese dish with pork ribs in peppery broth) stall owner was seen placing his rinsed vegetables on the floor.

What’s worse is that the basket of vegetables will in close proximity to someone washing the stall, so there was a risk that dirty water would splash onto the vegetables.

Here is what happened.

Netizen Spots Bak Kut Teh Stall Owner Placing Rinsed Vegetables on the Floor

On Thursday this week (3 August 2023), a netizen by the moniker of Alvin Ong reported some unhygienic food preparation practices at a local bak kut teh stall on the Facebook group COMPLAINT SINGAPORE.

In the post, Alvin Ong mentioned that he wanted to eat bak kut teh but, unfortunately, reached too late, and the stall was closed.

But that was no matter since what he saw would have killed his appetite instantly.

According to Alvin Ong, the uncle manning the stall was washing ‘mei cai’ (salted vegetables) in front of his stall.

 

That sounds fine, right?

But what was gross was that the washed ‘mei cai’ was placed in a basket on the floor.

The stall’s hygiene standards were definitely called into question here.

The Basket of Vegetables Was Also Very Close to Someone Washing the Stall

Some of you may be able to accept vegetables being placed in a basket on the floor as there is no direct contact between the food and the floor, and the vegetables are likely to be cooked later on, so any bacteria and germs are killed.

However, are you able to accept the risk that the vegetables are ‘washed’ with dirty water?

Alvin Ong’s post also called out that apart from the vegetables placed on the floor, they were placed close to someone washing the stall.

Indeed, some images which were attached to the post showed a lady pouring water in front of the stall, near where the vegetables were sitting in the basket.

This means that the dirty water from the floor could have splashed onto the vegetables (which renders the first washing useless).