A food processing company and its director were charged in court for not having expiry dates or “extended expiry dates” on 5,880kg of their products.
According to The Straits Times, Far Ocean Sea Products and its director, Jordan Quek Ruiming, 36, pleaded guilty on Oct. 20, 2023, to 30 charges of violating license conditions and one charge of illegally using a room at its premises for processing food.
Quek has been a director of the firm since July 1, 2015, overseeing production and logistics.
Far Ocean pleaded guilty to one other charge of obstructing officers in their investigations by tampering with a sealed room.
Quek and Far Ocean face 97 other charges, which would be taken into consideration for their sentence.
The charges include 66 counts of violating license conditions and 31 counts of misleadingly labelling the expiry dates of fish and meat products.
Inspection because of complaint
On Jul. 3, 2019, SFA officers discovered many products not labelled with expiry dates during an inspection of Far Ocean’s premises following a complaint.
Investigations revealed that Far Ocean did not properly record the invoices, production dates and inventory of their meat and fish products.
Some products found to have expired for more than three years were stored alongside unexpired products.
Staff broke into sealed room through ceiling to clean up
The investigators returned to the premises on Jul. 4, 2019, for continued inspection.
They discovered a locked room, but a worker claimed the room was not in use and keys were not on the premises.
Officers peeked through a gap in the door and saw meat-slicing machines in the room, along with pieces of meat and “white substances” in a drainage area.
However, the room was only approved as a dry store.
The officers sealed the three doors to the room and said they would return to inspect it once they got hold of the keys.
But when they returned the following day with the keys, they found that the room had been cleaned and the machines wrapped with plastic covers.
Investigations revealed that staff had entered the room through an opening in the false ceiling.
Prosecution ask for over S$221,000 fine
According to ST, Far Ocean had two licences that allowed it to operate a processing establishment on Fishery Port Road for fish and meat products intended for consumption.
It was required to ensure every pack of meat or fish products was marked and labelled with expiry dates.
The prosecution also revealed that Far Ocean received several customer complaints over product quality.
One employee filmed videos of his colleagues using penknives to remove expiry date labels from cartons of tiger prawns.
The prosecution described Far Ocean as a “significant market player”, and the case was the “most extensive offending behaviour in relation to a matter investigated by SFA”.
The prosecution seeks a fine of between $221,000 and $225,000, pointing out the high potential of harm, egregious behaviour of obstructing investigations, and the large quantity and variety of products involved.
Quek and the company's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20, 2023.
Top image via Mothership