Teacher illegally imports 175kg of food, including animals’ blood from China
A childcare teacher here has been hit with a $12,000 fine for bringing in processed meat products from China in early 2022.
Mei Hua was caught after Singapore Customs detected an illegal importation of more than 175kg of food items such as animals’ blood from China in January 2022.
She did not have a licence from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to import the food items, which were also declared as “toys and clothes”.
The agency earlier said that as illegally imported food products are from unknown sources, they can pose a food safety risk.
The 48-year-old Chinese national was fined on Monday after she pleaded guilty to an offence under the Wholesome Meat and Fish Act.
In an earlier statement, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore said that animal blood food products are prohibited in Singapore as blood can easily support the growth of bacteria and harbour diseases.
The agency added that unhygienic harvesting of blood can also result in the introduction of food-borne pathogens into blood food products.
In her mitigation, Mei said that the food items were for her own consumption.
She told District Judge Marvin Bay that she had not returned home to Jilin in north-eastern China for more than 10 years and needed some “hometown flavours” for Chinese New Year.
Stressing that there is a strict ban on animal blood products here, the judge said: “(Mei) who had been in Singapore for 16 years and a pre-school teacher for seven years was certainly in a position to have known better.
“Given that (Mei’s) work as an educator, the risk of unregulated importation of animal products, especially blood products, should be obvious as there would be no checks for pathogens – like bacterial contamination – and other hazards that might render the products to be unwholesome.”
According to an SFA prosecuting officer, investigations revealed that a total of 175.1kg of food items belonging to Mei were found to be illegally imported without a valid licence for meat and processed food.
They were smuggled into Singapore with other items such as clothes, books and housing goods.
The illegal food products included 33.4kg of ducks’ blood, 32.3kg of pigs’ blood, 6.7kg of sheeps’ blood, 5.35kg of chicken feet and sausages weighing 23.7kg in total.
All of the items were seized and disposed.
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