Trusting With Your Eyes

I had visited quite a number of food court in Singapore. The most common one which I often go is Horizon Food Mall or Banquet at Causeway Point (since they are near my home).

In life, sometimes, you would not pay much attention to certain things unless there are problems or issues which caused for alert.

Look at these pictures, they are not taken recently. They were taken last year, around August 2008. We know that times are bad and everybody is trying to cut cost, trying to save money etc etc. And we see stalls closing down and new stalls moving in over here at Woodlands food court. But that is part and parcel of life. If you can satisfy your customers, your business would be able to carry on. If you cannot satisfy your customers, we the customers’ money is not easy to earn either.

Horizon Food Court at Causeway Point: See the rating of “A” at Delicious Economic Rice, with a certificate of Commendation beside it.

Photograph of NEA Rating System, “A” and Certificate of Commendation at a Thai Food Stall at Horizon Food Mall : I patronized Lotus Thai Viet. It was the first time I ate the food on that day, 31 August 2008.

MY QUERY ABOUT THE MEANING OF A
Upon receiving the food, it looked nice and smelled nice. Sitting down, and eating the food, soon I regretted. The food was not bad, but it is not something which I would have expected based on a RATING OF A and with a Certificate of COMMENDATION. (wait for me to show you the picture and details).

Straight As
That is the point of time where I began to ask myself, what is really mean by A?? And that is the time when I BEGAN to look around me. ALL THE STALLS at Horizon Food Mall, YES, it is ALL THE STALLS at that time when I began to turn my head and looked at all the stalls. ALL THE STALLS ARE RATED “A”. Not any stalls with “B”.

Complacent Singaporean?
With all the stalls labelled A, and so many food choices. How are you going to decide which food stall to patronize? Hygiene level? Well, all ‘A’ lei, and Singapore is a ‘Safe’ country — can close your eyes and eat peacefully and ‘safely’?? You better think twice. (Want evidence, wait for my writing.)

Trust the PAPER or Trust The Food
When eating the food, do you trust what you see, what you are eating or do you trust a piece of blue paper (NEA grading system) and a piece of white paper (certificate of commendation)? It does look very nice and impressive, and enough to attract customers with Beautiful Photographs of their (food stall) food. But how many times are we ‘cheated’ by such photographs (I had many times been ‘cheated’ and not only me…)

Is that how NEA grade the stalls? (Must read further…)

What really is HYGIENE?
This is quoted from NEA Website about Food Hygiene: Retail food establishments are given a grade by NEA based on the overall hygiene, cleanliness and housekeeping standards of the premises. The Grading System for Eating Establishments and Food Stalls is a structured system of appraisal for food outlets that is meant to motivate licensees to improve and maintain good personal, food hygiene and housekeeping of their premises. All food retail outlets are required to display the grade indicating their grade, enabling the public to make a more informed choice when patronizing food outlets.

If all the grading is A as in the above case, and in most cases, I don’t see how INFORMED are we about making a choice in these food stall.

My English is no good. But that does not mean that I am a nut, a stupid. It is just that I am no good at composing nice poetry, or even to write a good essay with no grammatical errors and perhaps appreciating literature too. Looking at the grading system and the meaning of “A”, I have questioned myself what is the meaning of Hygiene. This is what the dictionary says about Hygiene:

hygiene:
1. the science that deals with the preservation of health, Also, hygienics.
2. a condition or practice conducive to the preservation of health, as cleanliness.

Noun
(the rules or science of) cleanliness whose aim is to preserve health and prevent the spread of disease
Chinese (Simplified): 卫生学
Chinese (Traditional): 衛生學

So Hygiene is more than just cleanliness. It is a Science. It is how to preserve health and also to prevent the spread of disease…

• 1 Straight A’s Programme | Just Singapore ~ Apr 22, 2009 at 1:15 pm

  [...] Certificate of Commendation? It would really means perfect food if I had not experienced the ‘real meaning of A‘ (being attracted for the first time at Lotus Thai [...]

• 2 Know Your ABC | Just Singapore ~ Apr 23, 2009 at 6:24 pm

  [...] You Can Rely On Me Can you judge a stall just by those lettering? For years I have been staying in Woodlands. For years, I had seen the same grading at my neighbourhood food stalls and the ones at shopping centres. They have never been changed. Neither was the food really hygienic despite the grading. If I have to rely on these grading, or if I relied entirely on these grading, I would have food-poisoned myself long ago and not only one time, but at least a few times. [...]

• 3 Muslim Food | Just Singapore ~ Apr 24, 2009 at 6:26 pm

  [...] Links: Singapore Food Grading System Trusting With Your Eyes Straight A’s Programmes Know Your ABC More Than ABC Share and [...]

• 4 Singapore OK Food Shop | Peacebella.com ~ Apr 25, 2010 at 12:59 am

  [...] Court Workers Red Alert Yong Tau Fu Muslim Food Stall Know Your ABC Straight ‘A’s programme Trusting with your eyes Singapore Food Rating Share and [...]