KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has ordered a Mamak restaurant to close, over numerous food safety and hygiene-related violations.
This came after a video of a rat munching on fried chicken went viral on social media two days ago.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Food Safety and Quality Department (BKKM) health enforcement officers from the Selangor Health Department and the Hulu Langat District Health Department had conducted checks on the premises involved on Dec 24.
"Checks found that the hygiene level of the premises was not satisfactory.
"Therefore, the restaurant is ordered to close for 14 days under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983," he said in a statement today.
The restaurant was also slapped with six compounds under the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009, he added.
The 15-second video was uploaded to Twitter on Dec 23, showing the rat eating fried chicken in the Mamak shop's food warmer display.
"It's (happening) right in front of my eyes. I won't eat at a Mamak anymore, I swear," the caption read.
The clip had since garnered 1.5 million views and was retweeted by the Health Ministry who had asked the user to provide information immediately.
"The ministry takes the issue of food health and safety seriously.
"Therefore, the ministry urges the public, especially food business owners and handlers, to be responsible in ensuring food safety to prevent poisoning and foodborne disease outbreaks," said Dr Hisham.
He advised the public to report any food safety-related matters to the nearest district or state Health department or through their website, http://moh.spab.gov.my or the BKKM Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bkkmhq.
The Health Ministry retweeted the viral clip calling on the customer to provide more information to take further action.