KUALA LUMPUR: Handwash is a requirement for food outlets as a condition for their licence, but many outlets do not provide it due to lax enforcement, says social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
Restaurants should provide liquid soap for both customers to wash before and after they eat and workers to wash their hands after using the restrooms, he said.
The Star front-paged a report yesterday stating that almost all 383 foreign workers tested in a study were found to be carrying microbes which could cause food poisoning and even death.
A small percentage of them also harboured antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to findings by researchers from Universiti Malaya.
Lee said that health inspectors must step up their efforts to clean up dirty eateries.
“They have to do more inspections and be stringent with the enforcement of the law,” he said.
He said he received many complaints on small restaurants, including roadside stalls, on food prepared in unhygienic conditions.
Those preparing food were foreign workers, he said, with food exposed to dust and plates washed in the same pail of water.
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