Fruit and veg most non-compliant category in import checks

Fruits

Meat

Vegetables

Singapore

Published Aug 20, 2020

Tridge summary

Imported fruit and vegetables remained the foodstuff with the most non-compliances in the latest round of testing by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA). Food safety statistics from January to June showed that 396 of 3,177 consignments of fruits and vegetables failed. A total of 87.5 percent of consignments passed SFA’s standards while all other categories had pass rates higher than 95 percent.

Original content

In the previous report, 3,825 consignments of fruit and vegetables were sampled from April to December 2019 with 491 failing. Sample failures were because of microbiological, chemical or pesticide residues exceeding allowable limits. Of 4,239 meat and meat products tested in the first six months of 2020 only 39 failed and from 790 seafood products sampled only 33 were non-compliant. Out of 515 processed eggs analyzed 21 breached the regulations. From 271 chicken and quail eggs just one sample failed. Of 1,239 processed food tests, 59 violated the regulations. SFA adopts a risk-based approach and is guided by science-based risk assessment and management. This means food of higher risks are subject to more stringent checks at the point of import. The country imports more than 90 percent of its food. For products that fail tests, SFA rejects the consignments and requires importers to solve the issue with suppliers from overseas. Offenders who illegally import food are liable on ...

Source: Foodsafetynews