Story By: Simona Kitanovska / newsX
An appalled student filmed this footage showing a fat rat crawling across the counter of a food court stall at a college campus with what appear to be crumbs over its face.
The clip, filmed on 25th September, shows the rodent scurrying over the cashier counter inside the Foodgle Hub food court at the Singapore Institute of Technology campus in Punggol.
The stall appeared to be closed at the time but the animal continued to sniff around the cash register.
Foodgle, the operator of the food court, said the sighting happened outside operating hours.
The company said it was alerted that night and disinfected the stall at 6:30am the next morning before it reopened.
Foodgle said: “We sincerely apologise that this occurred on our premises and take full responsibility. Food safety and hygiene remain our top priority.”
It confirmed it has since stepped up pest control by increasing inspections from twice a month to weekly, adding more traps and tightening hygiene checks.
No cases of food poisoning have been reported.
A male employee from the stall, who preferred to remain anonymous, told local media that he had seen the video and believed it was taken while the stall was closed, but confessed to seeing rats at the food court on numerous occasions.
He said: “We had not left any food behind and thoroughly disinfected the stall after the incident.”
The employee added that rats had been seen crawling along the ceiling pipes and said. “The situation worsens at night, when rats forage inside the stalls.”
Other stallholders admitted they had occasionally seen rats but said it was difficult to eradicate them completely.
The Singapore Food Agency said it was investigating and added: “SFA takes a serious view towards food safety and will investigate all feedback alleging poor food safety practices.”
The agency said it would not hesitate to take enforcement action if sufficient evidence were obtained.
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