Singapore – Export requirements for meat and poultry products

Eligible/ineligible product

Eligible

• Beef products:
  • boneless cuts from cattle of all ages
  • bone-in cuts for cattle under thirty (30) months of age (UTM) at the time of slaughter
• Ovine products
• Pork products:
  • Moisture Infused Pork (MIP)
  • chilled pork
• Poultry products
• Ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products

Ineligible

• Beef products:
  • mechanically separated meat (MSM) and mechanically recovered meat (MRM)
  • processed meat products
  • offal
  • cuts containing and/or contaminated with brains, eyes, spinal cord, skull and vertebral column from cattle over thirty (30) months of age (OTM) at the time of slaughter
  • cuts containing and/or contaminated with tonsils and distal ileum from cattle of all ages
• Chilled meat from boars or ridglings

Pre-export approvals by competent authority of importing country

Establishments

• Beef establishments must receive prior approval from Singapore authorities.
• Refer to Annex 1 - List of Establishments Approved to Export to Singapore for the list of approved beef establishments.
• In case the establishment name and number do not appear on the list, exporters are advised to contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) area or regional office.

Import permit

• A permit from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is required for the importation of meat products into Singapore.

Product specifications

• Meat products are subject to microbiological testing upon arrival in Singapore. Details that are available have been provided to each CFIA area or regional office in the form of Annex M: Microbiological specifications for imported meat.
• Singapore authorities have adopted Codex Alimentarius Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for ractopamine in beef and pork. These limits are applicable to frozen, chilled and processed products.
• Other beta-agonists including Zilpaterol are not allowed in meat products exported to Singapore.

Production controls and inspection requirements

• Stand-alone cutting-boning, further processing and storage establishments, which are not normally supervised by an official veterinarian in Canada, must be visited periodically by an official veterinarian to satisfy the veterinary supervision requirements appearing on export certificates.
• The frequency of the visits to such establishments by a veterinarian should be based on the complexity of operations conducted at the establishment and the compliance record of the establishment.

Beef

• Operators of establishments where beef products are manufactured for export to Singapore must develop, implement and maintain effective and verifiable control programs for ensuring compliance with all applicable requirements.
• Where eligible and non-eligible products are manufactured at the establishment, the control programs must ensure that non-eligible products can be distinguished from those that are eligible (through receiving, processing, and shipping/distribution).
• The control programs must include monitoring, verification and deviation procedures.
• The controls implemented by the operator to comply with applicable requirements must be reviewed and found satisfactory by the CFIA inspector. The inspector will verify compliance through usual inspection activities.
• Specific requirements can also be found on Annex F: Veterinary certificate for fresh meat and meat products derived from cattle destined to Singapore.
• The following conditions apply:
  • Boneless beef cuts from cattle of all ages and bone-in beef cuts from UTM, excluding MSM, MRM, processed meat products and offal, from approved establishments are eligible.
  • Bone-in and boneless beef obtained from cattle of all ages imported from a country approved by Singapore and recognized by the OIE as a BSE negligible risk country are eligible.
  • Boneless and bone-in beef cuts must be derived from cattle that were subject to official ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections.
  • Beef cuts must not contain nor be contaminated with brains, eyes, spinal cord, skull and vertebral column from OTM cattle, and tonsils and distal ileum, from cattle of all ages.
  • The cattle of origin are not suspect or confirmed Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) cases and are not suspect or confirmed cohorts of BSE cases.

Chilled pork

• Chilled pork must be derived from gilts and castrates which have not been treated with nitrofurans and porcine somatotropin. The latter requirement is fulfilled on the basis of assurances provided by the CFIA that these substances are not allowed for veterinary treatment of food animals in Canada.
• Singapore authorities accept the use of chlorine on pork carcasses only. See Food-specific requirements and guidance – Meat products and food animals.

Antimicrobial agents

• The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has approved the use of the following five (5) antimicrobial agents on meat and poultry carcasses (see table below). The dosage levels of chemicals used for the antimicrobial treatment must not exceed the maximum permitted levels.

  Note

  Chlorine is not permitted by SFA for application on cuts of meat.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products

• As part of their import control program, Singapore tests imported ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products for contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
• When positive results are found, the importation of such product from the producing establishment is suspended until Singapore is satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken.
• The suspension applies only to RTE meat products. In order to avoid the suspension of an establishment for non-RTE prepared meat products, it is required that the words "Ready-to-eat" or "Not ready-to-eat" as appropriate, be written immediately after the product description of prepared meat products appearing on the export certificates.

Transhipments of meat products

• Canadian meat shipments exported through a port in a country from which Singapore doesn't import meat or meat product (for example: transhipment through Japan or Hong Kong) shall:
  1. be in a refrigerated container sealed under the authority of an inspector;
  2. be sealed with an official seal, serially numbered, and the seal number shall be recorded on form CFIA/ACIA 1454;
  3. have the seal intact on arrival in Singapore; failing that, the shipment will not be accepted;
  4. the temperature record charts for the time period of shipment of the refrigerated container to Singapore shall be produced for examination; and,
  5. the container must not remain in the transhipment port for more than 14 days.

Labelling, marking and packaging requirements

• Singapore has specific marking and labelling requirements. These can be obtained from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA). It is the responsibility of the exporter to ensure that these requirements are met.
• For chilled pork, processing and packaging of meat products must ensure an extended shelf life (at least 6 weeks) for the products. The operator will have to provide a letter guaranteeing that the production is done under strict hygienic conditions, that the product is vacuum packed (or otherwise packed, for example, controlled atmosphere), and has a shelf life of at least six (6) weeks for sea shipment. Shelf life for vacuum packed chilled pork that is transported by air should be at least three (3) weeks.
• In case of Moisture Infused Pork (MIP), the shelf-life for MIP must be up to 14 days from the date of packaging and must be declared on labels. Product must be pre-packed and properly labeled as "moisture-infused pork" both on the outer carton and individual retail packs.
• The net weight of the product must be declared.
• Production and expiry dates must be declared on labels.
• Specific requirements for Ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products and Transhipments of meat products can be found in the Production controls and inspection requirements section.

Documentation requirements

Certificate

• Certificate of Inspection Covering Meat Products (CFIA/ACIA 1454)
• Annex A: Veterinary certificate for pork products destined to Singapore
  • For Moisture Infused Pork (MIP), the veterinary health certificate must indicate that the product is moisture infused pork.
• Annex B: Veterinary certificate for poultry meat products destined for Singapore
  • In the case of prepared meat products containing both pork and poultry meat, both Annex A and Annex B must be issued.

• Annex B-1: Veterinary certificate for poultry meat products destined for Singapore – Supplementary attestations during an outbreak of low pathogenic avian influenza in Canada

  Note

  In case of an outbreak of low pathogenic avian influenza, Annex B-1 shall be issued in addition to Annex B.

• Annex C: Veterinary certificate for meat products derived from pork, poultry or mutton containing less than 5% meat destined to Singapore
• Annex D: Veterinary certificate for canned and canned meat products^Footnote 1 destined to Singapore
• Annex F: Veterinary certificate for fresh meat and meat products derived from cattle destined to Singapore

• Annex N: Certification for pork in relation to India's requirement

  Note

  At the request of the operator / exporter, certification in relation to Indian export requirements for pork products can be issued. It is important to note that Annex N is not a Singaporean requirement. It can, however be issued at the request of the exporter, provided the applicable requirements of India are met.