masterwordsmith-unplugged

I stopped cooking when my older boy left home for his tertiary studies for convenience. After reading THIS REPORT, I think I may start cooking again.


The report said:

EIGHT food premises in Klang were ordered to close after they failed to meet hygiene standards.

One even had a dead rat in its frying pan.

Sinar Harian reported that the carcass was seen floating in a pan of used cooking oil, discovered in the kitchen of an outlet near Jalan Tengku Kelana.

Health officers also found cockroaches and animal droppings in the eight food premises that were investigated under Operasi Bersepadu Bersih 3 on Thursday.

“A check on the first outlet found that food containers were placed on the floor.

“Many cockroaches were also seen,” said Klang Municipal Council Health Department acting deputy director Amran Jali. CLICK HERE for more.

*Gulps*

How can it be that some who are humans are so irresponsible to serve/sell food that even animals will probably NOT eat? Is this how low some have become in their pursuit of profit and materialism? Where are their ethics, values and morals or don't these exist in their vocabulary?

Cleanliness should be part and parcel of any human's life. To live otherwise is a sheer reflection of the pathetic moral condition or the lack of it.

In 2008, the world was in a state of shock when the Chinese milk scandal broke out in the People's Republic of China where milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine.

Wikipedia reports that "by November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and a further 860 babies hospitalised. The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition."

In another development, THIS SITE reported that:

The Chinese food contamination freak show is back in full swing with new reports out of Singapore indicating that certain Chinese companies are now mass producing and selling fake rice to unwitting villagers. According to a report in the Korean-language Weekly Hong Kong, the manufacturers are blending potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic industrial resin to produce the imitation rice.

A report in Very Vietnam states that an official from the Chinese Restaurant Association has announced that eating three bowls of this fake rice is the equivalent of eating an entire plastic bag. Consuming such plastic material is obviously a serious health hazard, and officials are allegedly gearing up to conduct an investigation into the factories accused of producing the phony rice.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

All this for the sake of profit? Are the producers and those involved in such disgusting acts human?

I have had a few horrible and unforgettable experiences. Once, I bought 100g of Shantung peanuts and was happily munching them whilst driving when suddenly, there was a weird crunchy sound. The stuff was long, and unlike a peanut. Gingerly, I pulled it out and nearly crashed my car when I saw that it was the well-roasted leg of a cockroach.

I drove back to the shop and showed it to the proprietress who she apologized and gave me another packet of peanuts. I never ate it and stopped patronizing that shop.

Last year, a coffee shop in Penang was closed for two months for allegedly recycling straws! I heard from a girl friend that in Sarawak, a shop had to close down after a customer saw a worker blowing bubbles into a glass of hot tea in an attempt to make it look like teh tarik.

Let's hope that those in the food industry will observe high standards of hygiene in food preparation and remember that their customers are ALSO HUMAN!

In the mean time, please excuse me. I feel a power puke and turbo vomit surging within me.