Adam Road Food Centre hopes crowds will return after enhanced cleaning, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
Singapore

Adam Road Food Centre hopes crowds will return after enhanced cleaning

This article is more than 12 months old

Business at Adam Road Food Centre has taken a hit since the coronavirus outbreak, with some stalls reporting that their takings are down by 30 per cent.

But hawkers are hopeful the crowds will return, with the centre being awarded the SG Clean quality mark last Wednesday.

"Business has been down, but we're trying our best to get the community and people back... show them that we're cleaning the place up and not being complacent... showing that we also do our part as hawkers," Mr Sumadi Sapari, vice-chairman of the centre's hawkers' association, told reporters yesterday.

The SG Clean campaign was launched on Feb 16 to raise the level of cleanliness and safeguard public health amid the outbreak.

Hawker centres and stalls have to meet enhanced hygiene standards to be awarded the SG Clean quality mark.

These include ensuring food preparation areas and equipment are sanitised, waste is handled properly, and systems are in place to monitor staff health.

The quality mark is awarded by the Singapore Food Agency, while the National Environment Agency does so to hawker centres.

As of last Friday, 1,403 hawker stalls and 12 hawker centres, including Adam Road Food Centre, have been awarded the quality mark.

Adam Road Food Centre was closed yesterday for its quarterly spring cleaning, which now includes enhanced measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

The floor of the hawker centre is now mopped with bleach, which is left to soak for 20 minutes, and then the floor is sprayed with a high-pressure water jet.

TABLES & TOILETS

Tables, which were previously cleaned only after customers had finished eating, are now wiped down every two hours, regardless of whether a customer has sat there.

Toilets are now sanitised every two hours.

Stallholders have also stepped up measures to fight the virus as well.

Hawker Rita Noor Mihar Banum, 46, said she and others in her stall take their temperature every day and disinfect the stall three to four times a day. Ms Rita, who sells roti prata and mee goreng among other items, said it costs her $50 to $100 every month to purchase disinfectant and other cleaning supplies.

But the enhanced cleaning is the right thing to do, she said.

"You're a hawker, you're going to serve food, this is your responsibility - to ensure that safety standards are maintained," she added.

coronavirus