AUDIT REPORT The Tourism Ministry has been ticked off over the presence of bak kut teh and other non halal food at a government-sponsored food festival.

"An audit visit to the launch of Fabulous Food 1Malaysia (FF1M) 2013 on Nov 29 at Jalan Alor (Kuala Lumpur) and Taman Johor Jaya, Johor, found various kinds of food which are classified as non-halal or exotic.

"It was found that these shops were not segregated and placed side-by-side to stalls that were selling halal food," stated the third series of the report which was tabled in Parliament today.

The report added that the tourism ministry should take cognisance of the country's multi-racial and multi-religious make up.

"The content of the event by the organiser and ministry must consider the factor of religious or ethnic sensitivities which mirrors Malaysian culture.

"Other than respecting the idealogical and religious diversity, it is also to ensure inter-racial harmony is maintained," it said.

According to the report, among the non-halal food served at the FF1M 2013 event at Jalan Alor include hamburgers, bak kut teh, frogs, claypot wine chicken, claypot pork feet and pork noodles.

For the event at Taman Johor Jaya, the non-halal food include Chinese hamburgers and frogs.

It added that the FF1M even at Taman Johor Jaya in previous years, namely in 2012 and 2011, also served hamburger and bak kut teh which are non-halal.

For non-Muslim tourists

In a Sept 8 response to the audit report, the Tourism Ministry said that in KL, there were three separate locations to promote Malay, Chinese and Indian food at Kampung Baru, Jalan Alor and Brickfields respectively.

It added that certain locations, like Jalan Alor and Taman Johor Jaya, target non-Muslim tourists.

"The non-halal food were also properly labelled and there were no complaints from the visitors," it said.

The audit report also took issue that FF1M served an array of international food even though it is meant to promote local food tourism.

A check found that hawkers involved in the event did not just sell local dishes and instead had a menu of food from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West.

"This is not in line with the eent objective of promoting local food menu to tourists," it said.

However, the Tourism Ministry in its reply said this was to provide variety to diverse tourists.

"International food is also prepared during FF1M to diversify the choices of food according to the taste of foreign tourists and local visitors.

"The location of the organised programme were one stop centres for visitors to taste various dishes including Asian signature (dishes).

"It is aimed at promoting Asian food in line with the country's tourism theme 'Malaysia Truly Asia'," it said.

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