I refer to the letter of Urs Besmer, President of the Hong Kong Chefs Association, which appeared in the Sunday Morning Post, on October 11. I share his alarm at the state of food sanitation and hygiene that is allowed to prevail in Hong Kong. As chairman of the Hong Kong Club Managers Association, I can attest to a consensus among my colleagues that the regulatory authorities are woefully deficient in their attention to the dangers of food contamination. The absence of decisive and effective controls on the processing, storage and delivery of perishable goods has left me and many of my associates no choice but to take matters into our own hands by severing connections with sub-standard vendors. It makes no sense for us as professionals to deal with suppliers who cannot bring themselves to deliver goods fit for human consumption. Fear of going out of business may induce some to clean up their act. However those that survive on the fringe may, like a few rotten apples that spoil the whole barrel, continue to pose a health threat to the community at large. For this reason, comprehensive regulations must be introduced and rigorously enforced through a system of continuous monitoring and stiff penalties for non-compliance. The repercussions of poor hygiene have an insidious way of asserting themselves. Food-borne illnesses are not only bad for health, they are bad for business. Make no mistake: Hong Kong's recent, widely publicised health crises do nothing to stimulate tourism from countries where sanitation controls are long-established and taken for granted. The Government's priorities in addressing this matter will determine whether we can rightfully claim to be a world-class society in whose company it is safe to eat. DOUGLAS J. HOLTZ Chairman, Hong Kong Club Managers Association
