Promotion Of Healthier Food Choices At Hawker Centres

The programme, a joint effort by the ministries of Health (MOH) and the Environment (ENV), aims to encourage stall-holders in hawker centres to make available healthier food choices to customers. It calls for hawkers to provide more vegetables, use less fat and oil, less salt and less sugar in their dishes. Why these messages? Food plays an important role in our health. In Singapore, the leading causes of death are cancer, heart disease and stroke, which together form about 60% of all the deaths. These diseases are intimately linked to lifestyle factors, of which dietary practices are amongst them. Studies have shown that having a diet that is excessive in fat, salt, sugar and low in dietary fibre contributes to the development of obesity, heart disease, certain types of cancer, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. A healthy diet, therefore, should be one that has variety of the appropriate amount, and comprises foods rich in dietary fibre, and vitamins and minerals (as in vegetables), and low in fat, salt and sugar.

In the hawker centres, the offers of:

More vegetables -For added crunch - Vegetables are packed with dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals

Less fat and oil - For fewer calories - A diet high in fat especially saturated fats raises blood cholesterol levels

Less salt - For natural taste - A diet high in sodium (salt) can raise blood pressure

Less sugar - For original sweetness - Sugar provides energy with little nutrients. Learn to enjoy the natural flavours of food.

are made known to customers on a sticker label displayed at participating stalls. The attractive sticker informs customers of the healthier menu choice a particular stall is able to provide by way of a tick.

Stall-holders have been briefed on the programme and the guidelines on healthier food preparation and cooking methods detailed in a booklet "Healthier Food Choices". Stall-holders have also been encouraged to accede to other requests, where feasible, for example, to remove the skin of chicken, provide plain rice instead of lemak rice, serve sauce on the side, or to leave out gravy.

Publicity advertisements will be placed in the four language newspapers. Banners are being displayed at all hawker centres and posters informing the public to make their request known have been distributed to town councils, community centres/clubs, public libraries, government polyclinics, private and government hospitals and the hawker centres. Publicity materials will provide telephone numbers for the public to obtain information and to provide feedback.

We are pleased to announce that on 1 April 1999, the programme was extended to all 140 hawker centres with 80.5% of the stalls participating. Should customers have any queries or find that the hawkers are unable to accede to their requests they can call the ministries at Tel: 731 9794 (ENV) and 435 3671 (MOH).