What Singapore Requires of Canadian Food, by Category

Singapore's licensing and accreditation rules are on their own pages. This one is the certification detail, read from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's export requirements for Singapore, four pages, one per category. It contains the single most useful sentence about this market on the site, and it is about four words on a form.

Four words that stop a suspension

Singapore tests imported ready-to-eat meat products for Listeria monocytogenes as part of its import control programme. Where a non-compliance is found, imports of that product from the producing establishment are suspended until Singapore is satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken. That is an establishment-level consequence from a single failing sample.

The suspension applies only to ready-to-eat products. So CFIA requires that the words "Ready-to-eat" or "Not ready-to-eat", as appropriate, be written immediately after the product description of prepared meat products on the export certificate, precisely so that a non-RTE product is not caught by an RTE suspension.

If you ship prepared meat to Singapore, that is the cheapest insurance on this page, and it is the kind of thing that gets omitted when a certificate is prepared in a hurry.

Beef, and what is not eligible

For beef produced on or after 27 March 2021, eligible product covers beef cuts bone-in and boneless and offal from cattle of all ages, including ground beef and beef patties without additives, and processed beef such as heat-processed or cured beef including sausages and jerky, from cattle born and raised in Canada or imported from a country Singapore approves and the World Organisation for Animal Health recognises as negligible risk for BSE.

Ineligible throughout: brains, eyes, spinal cord, skull and vertebral column from cattle thirty months and older, and tonsils and distal ileum from cattle of any age. The earlier restrictions on mechanically separated and recovered meat were eliminated from the revised certification requirements effective 1 March 2022 and do not apply to beef produced on or after that date.

Singapore has adopted Codex maximum residue limits for ractopamine in beef and pork, applying to frozen, chilled and processed product. Other beta-agonists, including zilpaterol, are not allowed.

Chilled pork has its own physics

Chilled pork must be derived from gilts or castrated market hogs, and the processing and packaging must give the product an extended shelf life. CFIA states the figures: at least six weeks for sea shipment, at least three weeks for vacuum packed product moving by air.

The operator provides a letter guaranteeing that production is under strict hygienic conditions, that the product is vacuum packed or otherwise packed such as under controlled atmosphere, and that the shelf life requirement is met.

Chilled pork from boars or ridglings is not eligible. The animals must not have been treated with nitrofurans or porcine somatotropin, which is satisfied on CFIA's assurance that those substances are not permitted for veterinary treatment of food animals in Canada.

Moisture-infused pork has a labelling rule of its own: the product must be pre-packed and labelled "moisture-infused pork" on both the outer carton and the individual retail packs, and the veterinary health certificate must say so as well.

Which annex goes with which meat

Every consignment travels on form CFIA/ACIA 1454 with a veterinary certificate annexed: Annex A for pork, Annex B for poultry, Annex C for products derived from pork, poultry or mutton containing less than five percent meat, Annex D for canned meat, and Annex F for beef. A prepared product containing more than one species takes the annex for each meat it contains.

Certification is provided in English; a French version is for information only. Where pathogen reduction treatments are used, only Singapore-approved treatments up to their maximum use levels are permitted, on raw meat that has not been salted, marinated, preserved or otherwise processed, and a prescribed attestation goes in the additional certification section of the 1454.

Two operational points. Stand-alone cutting, boning, further processing and storage establishments that are not normally supervised by an official veterinarian in Canada must be visited periodically by one, because the certificates attest to veterinary supervision. And Canadian meat transhipped through a port in a country Singapore does not import meat from must travel in a refrigerated container sealed under the authority of an inspector.

Fish, and the oyster paperwork

All fish and seafood products are eligible, on a Certificate of Origin and Hygiene, CFIA/ACIA 5003. Standards come from Singapore's Sale of Food Act 1973 and the Food Regulations, covering microbiological standards, heavy metals, mycotoxins and marine biotoxins, veterinary drug residues, pesticide residues and other incidental constituents such as histamines.

Oysters are treated separately because Singapore considers all live oysters for human consumption to be ready-to-eat food.

A live oyster certificate must attest that the product was harvested from approved waters and processed in an approved establishment in a sanitary and hygienic manner, that it has not been treated with chemical preservatives or other additives injurious to health, and that it is fit for human consumption.

It must also carry the Fisheries and Oceans Canada harvest area and sub-area, the province, a statement that the area was not closed for marine toxins at the time of harvest, and the harvest dates.

Frozen oysters require testing for norovirus before export, and the certificate must attest that the consignment has been tested and found free of it.

Processed egg

Canadian processed egg facilities need pre-approval before export, and must appear on the Singapore Food Agency's accredited overseas meat and egg processing establishment database. Additions, changes and removals go through your CFIA regional office with the establishment licence or registration number and the name and address of the physical location including postal code.

The certificate is a Certificate of Inspection for Processed Egg, CFIA/ACIA 2684, and the remarks section carries prescribed statements.

• That the products have been heat treated and are free of pathogenic micro-organisms, especially Salmonella
• That additives or colouring matters injurious to health have not been added
• That the products have been handled and packed hygienically and are free from contaminants
• That the eggs used were cleaned and sanitised with a sanitizer containing 50 to 200 parts per million of available chlorine, or an approved sanitizer through an automated egg washer

Dairy

Canada is authorised to export dairy products, and CFIA knows of no approved-establishment list. Manufacturing must be under official CFIA oversight and licensed under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. Product already exported includes cheddar and cheddar types, processed, specialty and fresh cheese, condensed milk, dairy-based edible ice, skim milk powder, yogurt, and butter and other fats and oils derived from milk.

The order to do this in

Settle the certificate wording before the first shipment, not the first problem: the ready-to-eat marker on prepared meat, the moisture-infused pork declaration, the oyster harvest details. Confirm the shelf-life engineering for chilled pork with the plant rather than the sales office. And check the category page on accreditation before any of it, because an establishment that is not on Singapore's list has nothing to certify yet.