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Monday, July 7, 2014

36 down with food poisoning. So what?



Here is the news

PUTRAJAYA: Thirty-six people are down with food poisoning after eating Roti John (beef or chicken sandwiches) bought from a stall at a Ramadan bazaar in Taman Seri Muda, Shah Alam, the Health Ministry said.

Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said no deaths had been reported but 24 of them were still being treated in hospitals and 12 were given outpatient treatment.

“Preliminary results from five clinical specimens found that the victims had suffered from salmonella spp. Tests on specimens from the food operator and environmental swabs are still ongoing. The results will be known within the next two days,” he said.

Recall the 4 people who died of food poisoning at that khenduri in Kedah? Six more died in hospital. That makes 10 deaths. It was a serial killing. Yet not one person was charged in Court.

Now 36 people are down witrh food poisoning from a Bazaar Ramadan food stall. Again no one will be charged.

A few days ago I bought onde-onde from a Bazar Ramadan stall. They sold it from a large open tray. It was ok. The next day the same stall had their onde-onde nicely packed in plastic packets. Without suspecting anything I bought one packet. It turned out bad. 

What they had done was to pack the unsold and day old (and sudah basi) onde-onde in plastic packets so that people will not be able to smell the basi food.  This is not only dishonesty and cheating but very dangerous behaviour. People can die of food poisoning.

However there seems to be a careless and tidak apa attitude among the people towards bad food caterers, bad food vendors etc. Some months ago one of our staff got sick after eating bad food at a khenduri. Another staff pacified her with, 'Biasalah makan di khenduri'. So eating bad food and getting sick, missing work and even dying because of food poisoning is becoming acceptable. As I said 10 people died of food poisoning in Kedah and no one was charged or arrested.

Its ok if the caterer serves bad food, its ok if the Bazaar Ramadan sells bad food, its ok if 36 people get sick or 10 people die.

I wrote about this in 2005 in my book To Digress A Little. It has become an accepted part of Malaysian life.  But thankfuly not among all people though. 

The other day my son and I suffered food poisoning after sharing a burger from a fast food outlet (the chicken place).   My son got better in a day but it took me longer to get the bug out of my system.  Cleanliness and hygiene at that chicken place has obviously gone down.

This is a national issue and we have to pay closer attention. No need for billion Ringgit contracts to cronies to rectify the bad food situation. Just enforce the existing laws. Vendors and caterers who serve bad food must be punished. Fine, jail and/or bar offenders from the food business. 

And we have to teach kids what really is hygiene and clealiness in school.  And we pray that a time will come when food stalls will not operate from the roadsides and streets, from tepi parit and longkang or with no proper waste and garbage disposal available.

Tapi peniaga lain jual makanan tak ada masalah sangat.  How come?

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