Malaysian Loves Typhoid Infected Food Handler

We were recently informed of a suggestion coming from our human resources minister M. Kulasegaran whereby all restaurants in the country should recruit locals as cooks from July 1 and all operators would have till the end of the year to ensure they are only employing local cooks, effective as of January 1 2019.

Kulasegaran hopes this initiative would reduce dependence of local restaurants on foreign labour because they want “locals to be employed as cooks. With Penang state government as their compass, the ministry would allow the same for the rest of Malaysia as this northern island state has prohibited foreigners to work as cooks at hawker stalls since 2014.

Kulasegaran later clarified on June 23 that his statement telling restaurant operators to employ only local cooks starting next year was merely a suggestion. Our human resource minister further added that the ruling was directed at “ordinary local food” joints and foreign food restaurants, high-end restaurants, and five-star hotels will not be subject to this ruling if it is implemented.

1,404 people voted and shockingly, 72% would not mind their meals being cooked by foreign hands, whereas, 28% said they would only want locals cooking their meals. This goes to show that a lot of Malaysians are not keen to see this proposal implemented as law. Malaysians want the local food outlets they patronise to be cheap and good while observing high standards of hygiene. 

We often discuss about the quality and the authenticity of a certain dish. But did you know, after a recent study by a team of researchers from Universiti Malaya, led by Assoc Prof Dr Siti Nursheena Mohd Zain, they found a high prevalence of food poisoning bacteria on the hands of foreign workers working in the local food service industry.

In the study, almost all foreign workers tested were found to be carrying microbes which could cause food poisoning and even death, and a small percentage of them harboured antibiotic resistant bacteria.

In the paper, “Microorganism as indicator of hygiene status among foreign food handlers in Peninsular Malaysia”, Dr Siti Nursheena findings indicate that up to a startling 99.5% of legal foreign workers in the food industry sampled in three cities – Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu and Shah Alam had possessed high levels of Aerobic Plate Count (APC) exceeding acceptable standards.

“Food handlers are a source of foodborne disease outbreaks in Malaysia. The findings indicate high probability of transmission of pathogenic bacteria from the food handlers’ hands to customers during meal preparation and serving and this calls for improvements in personal hygiene and sanitation standards by the relevant health authorities,” Dr Siti Nursheena told.