Many hawkers like 62-year-old Tony Gulati pay external vendors to save on preparation time, adding to the cost of adding greens to their meals. Each kilo of cut vegetables can cost 50 cents to a dollar more compared to unprepped vegetables.

“I order cut vegetables because I’m a one-man show,” said Mr Gulati who has been running a stall selling Indian food for eight years at the hawker centre in Our Tampines Hub.  

His value meal option, which was one of the few that almost reached recommended nutritional standards, does not feature any fresh vegetables. 

The budget meal he offers is a wrap filled with bits of chicken, egg, and frozen vegetables, topped with a tangy yoghurt sauce. 

He uses chia seed wraps, even though they cost a little more, to provide more nutrition.

“Make less money but give better food – that’s our policy,” he said. 

Six months ago, he raised the price of that wrap from S$2.80 to S$3.50 after the hawker centre’s operator Fairprice Group allowed an increase in price ceiling for value meals. 

“We try our best (to make things healthy) … to make it nutritious and (low in) fat,” he said. 

At a coffee shop in Telok Ayer, Mr Eugene Wang, 45, buys uncut vegetables, saving about S$1 per kilo as compared with pre-cut vegetables. 

This has allowed the owner of vegetarian stall Veggie 121 to keep prices low, such as offering a bee hoon meal at S$2.50, which comprises of nearly 500g of bee hoon, 136.2g of vegetables and 116.4g of protein from a mix of beancurd and tofu.

At Hock Hai (Hong Lim) Curry Chicken Noodle in Fernvale Hawker Center and Market, customers opting for their budget meal have the choice of bee hoon or yellow noodles with curry for the price of S$3.20. The flavourful bowl of curry comes with two pieces of beancurd skin, shredded chicken breast, as well as a small handful of bean sprouts.

“My boss has already calculated precisely how much to go into one value meal bowl. If we increased the amount (of vegetables and meat), we would be losing money,” said the stall’s assistant, Mr Chen Xu, 31, in Mandarin.

“Truth be told, we don’t earn from the value meal. But most people order our full (priced) dishes anyway so we can still earn money.”