Staff-served buffet lines in Singapore allowed to resume

BUFFET lines, which were suspended last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be allowed to resume starting April 12, according to the Association of Catering Professionals Singapore (ACAPS).

But the food must be served by staff, meaning self-service buffets remain suspended. And weddings, funerals and social activities - even within corporate settings - are still not allowed to have buffet dining.

The now-permitted staff-served buffet lines will still need to adhere to certain rules. At corporate events, each food line can only serve a maximum of 50 people, for instance. Also, a representative must be present to ensure compliance with safe-management measures.

At meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibition events, the food line cannot serve attendees of different zones at the same time. And similarly, a representative must be present to ensure compliance with safe-management measures.

When queried, a spokesperson for Enterprise Singapore confirmed that it is working towards relaxing safe-management measures for staff-served food lines. The agency will release an updated advisory. 

This development will give "some hope" to beleaguered food caterers, who have seen their revenue decline by 70 to 80 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, said Vincent Phang, president of ACAPS, which has about 170 members.

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Even though some caterers have shifted to offering bento food boxes, this is typically a low-margin business, noted Mr Phang, who is also chief executive of Tung Lok Group's events and catering division.

Some caterers have also been cautious about pivoting to a different line of business, such as manufacturing ready-to-eat products or running a restaurant, even as the association has encouraged them and secured support from Enterprise Singapore for them to do so.

"Pivoting is a tough decision to make, with a lot of requirements to plan for," said Mr Phang, whose business has moved into food manufacturing. It took his division about five months to secure the relevant licences and government grants.

But food caterers also cannot simply continue waiting for the rules to be relaxed further, he noted.

"I'm not sure how long they can sustain themselves that way."