Raid seizes 2.2 tons of fish, frogs from warehouse in Singapore

More than two tons of fish, frog, and beef were seized in a raid from an industrial building in Senoko, Singapore, on 13 April.

The imported products were allegedly illegally sourced from Vietnam without a valid license, according to Channel News Asia. They were being stored in  chest freezers and chillers in the warehouse.

Illegally storing meat and seafood products in unlicensed facilities poses risk of fines to SGD 37,600 (USD 28,200, EUR 25,500) and or jail up to one year in Singapore.

“Illegally imported food products of unknown sources can pose a food safety risk,” the SFA said.

There were also more than 470 bottles of alcohol and varying medicines being stored illegally in the warehouse, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said. 

The incident is the most-recent in a series of raids of illegal cold-storage and seafood-processing facility. In March 2023, Tan Poh Gwee, the director of Ed’s Frozen Enterprise was sentenced to three weeks in prison for running an unlicensed cold-storage facility. In August 2021, the SFA found 19,000 kilograms of frozen meat and seafood products being stored illegally at the company's facility, according to Food Safety News.

And in April 2023, Sin Hin Frozen Food was fined SGD 10,000 (USD 7,500, EUR 6,800) following a June 2022 raid in which the SFA found the company repacking raw scallops at its facility, which did not have a licence for food processing activities. Around 85 kilograms of scallopers were seized in the raid. The SFA found the repackaged scallops had been labeled with an expiration date and country of origin different from the original label, according to The Straits Times.

Photo courtesy of Singapore Food Agency