Healthier Food for Singaporeans

If you just starting to plan for a food hawker business, I believe it is worth considering a stall menu that ties in with the Healthier Hawker Food Program. Under National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2004, they found that every one in two local adults aged 18-69 years eats out at hawker centres six times or more per week. This shows that there is a need to improve the nutrition standards of the hawker centres.

'Ask for' Programme

In fact, this campaign has been around for a few years, starting with 'Ask for' programme. I remembered there was a period where many vendors put up 'Ask for more vegetables' and I often wouldn't ask for that because I was not sure if they are going to charge me a little more or whether adding more vegetables may mean lesser of other ingredients that may change the whole food experience.

'Healthier Hawker Food' Programme

To improve on the programme, a joint collaboration took place between Singapore Heath Promotion Board (HPB) and National Environment Agency (NEA) on the 'Healthier Hawker Food Programme'. In addition, with the rise in concern on trans fat, HPB has been publishing the trans fat content from various common food items. At the moment, only 1% or less trans fat content in food is allowed from the total calorie intake and complies in accordance to World Health Organization (WHO).

Low salt, Low Trans fat, Low oil....?

Currently, the challenge for food hawker vendor is often to plan the food preparation process that comply not only to the food hygiene standards, but also meet the expectation and the demand of the consumer. Now, it looks to me that there are more to come.

Personally, I think that though having a profitable business is one of the most critical thing to consider for sustaining a Hawker business, I believe that there is also a sense of social responsibility from the food vendors and manufacturers. Just bear in mind that whatever they are serving to the community, they will eventually see the health impacts as well.

Other Related Articles

1) HPB- How New Healthier Hawker Food Programme Benefits the Locals

2) HPB- Healthy Eating at Hawker Centre

Make your hawker food stall attractive?

When it comes to the set up of the food stall, it is very important to make it as attractive as possible. However, some new food entrepreneurs fall into the common trap of over-investing in decoration of the stall. To prevent overspending, it is neccesary to keep a check list of the start-up cost and do a research on the current market price for the equipments you need to buy before assessing the budget you want to keep. This should apply not only to your renovation, but also the other things in your checklist.

To make your food stall attractive, you can consider:-

1) Make sure there is sufficient lighting at the stall

A dark or not well-lited stall makes your potential customers wonder if your shop has started its operation or not. In contrast, positioning spot lights at strategic angle can help your food more appetizing. Some stall vendor may not like to use spot light partly because it can be quite costly, but if it means drawing your customers by many folds, why not?

2) Get a good second hand equipment

For young start-up, it is always good to save cost wherever possible. To purchase a stainless steel frame for the display and serving your customers, it can be really expensive to buy a brand new one. To give you a good 'feel' of the price range, it can be as low as $3,000 to $5,000 for a second hand basic setup that includes the gas stove stand, the delivery and the setup.

You may find many second hand equipment shops along sims avenue, geylang and even little india area. Warning: Cheap second-hand equipments does not mean that it is good. You need to check that the items are in good conditions before you make the purchase. Also, the second hand goods are based on first come, first serve basis as they are limited for selection. Another thing to note is to make sure the frame suits your how you intend to operate the food preparation and serving flow.

3) Stall signage and menu price list

Check your stall for the existing panel. If there is one, you can consider purchasing the vinyl adhesive poster to paste over the PVC sheet. Make sure that the stall signage has your stall name. For a chinese traditional look, make your signage bilingual. To make your stall stand out, you may consider adding some food photos on the signage. It is not advisable to put your price list on the panel in case there is any inflation that forces a readjustment to your price. Instead, a separate menu price list can be printed so that if there is any special offer for the day, you can put up your new price list and make it attractive.

Singapore Food Hawker's dream

I was travelling in the bus when I overheard a group of five were chatting loudly about their future food stall going to be. One of them thought aloud: "We can cook Cheng Teng or Tao Suan to sell". Another one was casting away the idea of selling roasted meat, saying it is too much work.

As the bus journey passes by some coffeeshops, I could hear their excitement when they were comparing the crowds from the first coffeeshop to the next one. I didn't dare to turn my head around, but I could see their excited expression from the reflection of glass panel. I was noticing them quietly.

They continued to talk about who is going to collect the money from the customers and all of them seem more excited about counting the money than to collect them. I wonder why. In the end, they all agreed that each of them will count how much they collect at the end of the day; they look clearly contented at the prospect.

When it was near their stop, the whole group of them alight from the bus and continue their excitement over their food hawkers' dream. I think to myself: Not many can find good partners to pull their funds and resources together for a common goal in business. I silently wish for their Food Hawker's dreams to come true.

Normal person vs Abnormal person

In Singapore, most of us are brought up to live like a normal person. A normal person is defined as someone who is doing what everybody is doing. Do you remember when you were looking for a job, like everybody else, you wonder which one is suitable for your academic qualification. Then, you suddenly, you realize your entire education didn’t fit your passion. By then, it seems too late to turn back the clock and you choose to remain in the same line to leverage on whatever you have in order to get your first job.

As years go by, you become an expert. For some, the job become stagnant and you become restless. You begin to realise that the corporate ladder and the prospects left for you isn't as fantastic though this is what a normal person would take up. With the loyalty between the company and the employee drifting apart, job hopping and retrenchment has become more common and strangely normal too.

Despite these strangely normal situations, people continue to live like everybody. It seems oddly natural as well. For some, they remain contented with their career, either job hopping or join the forcasting game on who starts the firing (i.e. either you fire your boss first or the other way round)

The last thing on a normal person's mind is to get out of the normal employment cycle and do something different, like starting a business. You start to realize that the abnormal way is even harder and more challenging than what your normal employment demands. The normal peers will begin to look at you with abnormal eyes and you realize that there is really something wrong to go against the ‘nature of norm’. So by the way, what is a normal profession? And do you still want to be an entrepreneur?

Are we slaves to money?

Are we really money slaves? It is amazing with what money can buy. It draws people together, put a smile on their faces, provides a fantastic lifestyle (that is if you have the time to think about them) and you can travel far away places to escape into another realm without the work stress to bug you.

But on the other hand, the work can be very demanding and usually additional work are given to you with no or little pay rise. You want to get out of that job or business and move to the next better one. Sometimes, you never find the better job you initially sought for.

If we take a step back and imagine if we do not have our current jobs; the first thing you would be deprived of is money and without money, we are like the addicted slaves at one corner, feeling skinny, vulnerable and deprived of their drugs that makes them feel high if they have it.

So, are you slave to the money or are you in control?