Looking Back in Time - Parkway Pantai

Excellence26Excellence 27ConnectConnectHealthy Canteen Foodfor a Healthier YouJust as little steps go a longway, the quality of food in astaff canteen is instrumental indetermining the overall healthand performance of a company’sworkforce.HonouringInnovationGleneaglesCRC clinches BioSpectrumAsia’s Editor’s Choice AwardParkway’s Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles and East ShoreHospitals, due to the efforts of their Food and Beverage(FNB) teams to steer the hospital canteens in a healthierdirection, were awarded the “Healthier Canteen Award” bythe Health Promotion Board (HPB) in January this year.Under the Healthier Canteen Certification Programme,which aims to help food vendors prepare healthierfood, the award certifies workplace canteens that havesuccessfully met guidelines like preparing food with lessoil, salt and sugar and have shown extra effort to provideplenty of vegetables and fresh fruit at the canteens.To achieve the certification, the FNB teams, headed byChefs Jeremy Lim (Gleneagles), Lee Thiam Huat (East Shore)and Randy Chow (Mount Elizabeth) had to go through athree-step process that took a year to complete.In the initial stage, the teams had to attend a briefingby HPB to understand the programme’s certificationprocess and to learn ways to encourage more people topick healthier food choices. Next, food vendors startedimplementing the new guidelines and introducedhealthier food options for at least three months beforean audit check was conducted to ensure food was tastyyet in-line with the stipulated guidelines.Canteens that pass the final on-site audit check will receivea “Healthier Canteen Award” certification for one year.Some of the methods the teams used to make thecanteen food more healthful included replacing coconutmilk, a popular ingredient in local dishes, with fresh milk;removing chicken skin; and cutting down on the numberof deep fried dishes on the menu.They also worked with HPB officers to create awarenessamong staff on the benefits of healthier canteen food.“Initially, some of them were not used to eating meat withoutskin,” said Chef Lim. “But they understand the importanceof healthy eating and got used to it eventually.”“We are glad that the response has been veryencouraging,” said Chef Lim. “The challenge now is forus to continue cooking food that is both tasty and goodfor health.”One of Singapore’s leading clinical researchorganisations, GleneaglesCRC Pte Ltd, asubsidiary of Parkway Holdings Limited, hasbeen honoured with the very first Editor’sChoice Award for Emerging CRO Companyof Singapore for 2008 by BioSpectrum Asia— Asia’s most widely circulated life sciencesmagazine. The editors of BioSpectrummade their decision to hand the award toGleneaglesCRC due to its innovative businessmodel and potential to emerge as an industryleader in the near future. Dr Yap Kok Wei, Chief ExecutiveOfficer of GleneaglesCRC, accepted the award fromMr S. Iswaran, Senior Minister for Trade and Industry, atthe awards ceremony on 5 March 2009.GleneaglesCRC today conducts clinical research throughits eight offices in Asia and with a network spanning 270hospital sites and with more than 1,000 investigators acrossthe Asia-Pacific region, allowing it to be at the forefront forthe recruitment of study subjects.In the coming year, GleneaglesCRC will belaunching exciting initiatives such as a collaborativeproject with Murdoch University, Western Australia,to conduct two ICH-GCP (International Conference onHarmonisation of Good Clinical Practice) workshopsin Malaysia and Indonesia. GleneaglesCRC will also beworking in collaboration with several major Americanand European companies to conduct clinical trialsin the region. The company is also mulling over apossible strategic expansion to Japan.