Five court summonses issued, one arrested as FEHD combats illegal meat sales

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) reported that they issued five court summonses and arrested a person after seizing 24 kg of frozen poultry and 12 kg of frozen mutton as they stepped up law enforcement against illegal sales of frozen meat.   

Any confiscated meat was immediately destroyed, the FEHD added.   

The latest blitz operation was conducted from March 21 to 26, according to the FEHD.   

Officers inspected approximately 2,500 fresh provisions shops or food business premises, 5,400 public market stalls, 800 licensed fixed hawker stalls, and 50 target locations during the operation.   

Apart from the prosecutions, FEHD officers also gave out 12 verbal warnings to stalls that didn’t keep their frozen meat at a suitable temperature, overloaded their refrigerators, failed to produce delivery notes or invoices for approved sources, or didn’t display the notice of “Imported Chilled Poultry for Sale” properly.   

Four more verbal warnings were handed out to market tenants that failed to sell imported chilled poultry in intact pre-packed form, one of their tenancy conditions.   

After follow-up inspections, the FEHD confirmed that all the irregularities were subsequently rectified.   

The FEHD said they would closely monitor the situation and conduct blitz inspections and enforcement operations, according to complaints received.  

They also encourage residents to visit licensed frozen meat stores or market stalls with food from approved sources.