My brother lives in a Housing Board flat, and his next-door neighbour is currently running a home-based food business.

Over the past year, the business appears to have expanded into catering services, with preparation taking place even in the corridor outside the flat and causing inconvenience to neighbours.

The pushing of trolleys holding many boxes of food also creates disturbances.

We consulted the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), and were told that home-based businesses are monitored by HDB. HDB inspected the premises, but matters have not improved. There seem to be more helpers entering the neighbour’s flat, and more boxes of food coming out.

According to SFA’s website, as home-based food businesses are meant to be small-scale, they should not offer catering services.

But how does HDB define what is “small-scale”, and how does it monitor whether a home-based food business has grown beyond this definition?

Perhaps HDB and the Urban Redevelopment Authority should clearly define the parameters of a home-based business.

A business that produces food in such large quantities should be moved to properly licensed premises. The scale of the cooking being done at the neighbour’s flat also generates a lot of noise, and may be a potential fire hazard.

Lim Siew Kim