Repackaging and Sale of Fukushima Food Products under Local Brand Names

Mrs Lina Chiam asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether any Fukushima food products have been repackaged and sold under other local brand names in Singapore; (b) if so, what are these local brand names and in which supermarkets are these repackaged goods being sold; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider a research study on the health effects of Fukushima products on consumers.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) licenses and registers all food importers and is able to impose import requirements on them. In addition to requiring each food consignment from Japan to be accompanied by a certificate of origin, stating which prefecture the food originates from, the food packaging also needs to be labelled with information, such as country of origin of food and contact information of the local importer. This is to ensure that the food products in the market are correctly labelled. To date, AVA’s active surveillance has not detected any case of Fukushima food products being mislabelled or repackaged and sold under other local brand names in Singapore.

AVA continues to test foods from Japan. Since January 2013, AVA has not detected any radioactive contamination in food samples from Japan. Hence it is not necessary to carry out a research on the health effects of Fukushima food products on local consumers. Singapore does not tolerate any radioactive contaminants in food.