THE Yangon City Develop-ment Committee (YCDC) last week released a list of restaurants it says serve food in an exceptionally hygienic environment.

The list of 13 restaurants was topped by Shwe Pu Zun Bakery in Dawbon township, followed by Olympic Hotel and Yuzana Garden Hotel, both in Dagon township.

Dr Aung Than, the head of the committee’s Health Department, said the 13 eateries were chosen from a list of 106 establishments that had been found to adhere to high standards of hygiene by township and district officials.

“We had announced certain criteria for restaurants to be included on the list. After examining the shops according to these criteria we chose the top 13,” he said.

Among the criteria were the cleanliness of the kitchen, the water, the cooking utensils, the food, the clothes worn by the chefs and wait staff, and the environment in general.

The committee awarded recognition certificates to all the restaurants whose hygiene exceeded the normal standard.

“Out of about 10,000 restaurants in Yangon we recognised 93 as meeting our hygiene standards,” said Dr Aung Than.

He insisted that the general lack of cleanliness among restaurants in Yangon had not resulted in any widespread problems such as food poisoning.

YCDC first named a list of hygienic restaurants in 1996 during Visit Myanmar Year. Although the committee had said it planned to release a new list every two years, it has only done so in 2003, 2004 and this year.

“We were very busy so we failed to keep up the list but now we will make an effort to do it every two years,” Dr Aung Than said.

Other restaurants on the list included Shwe Pu Zun in Lanmadaw township, Ginza Pan in Mingalar Taung Nyunt, L’opera in Mayangone, Shan Kan in Dagon, Savoy in Kamayut, Golden Hill Tower in Bahan, Moon Bakery in Kyauktada, Ashoka in Tarmwe, Phai Lin in Tarmwe and Coca Suki in Ahlone.