If there’s one thing worse than having badly-cooked food, it’s having expired food.
And that’s precisely the issue that got this former steamboat restaurant owner into trouble with the law.
In particular, this owner was found to have stored almost 20,000kg of meat products and seafood illegally.
Over 1,000kg of these products were expired as well.
Yup, that’s probably more seafood and meat than you’ll ever eat in your life.
The man in question, Tan Poh Gwee, also ran Ed’s Frozen Enterprise, a frozen product supplier.
Tan, 50, admitted to two charges under the Wholesome Meat and Fish Act last Wednesday (1 March).
Another charge under the Wholesome Meat and Fish (Transportation of Meat Products) Rules was taken into consideration during sentencing.
That charge involved Tan’s business transporting meat from their cold storage warehouse at Enterprise One in Kaki Bukit Road via a dirty vehicle that did not have a functional refrigeration compartment.
Live cockroaches were found in the vehicle as well.
And here’s everything else you need to know about the case.
Authorities First Noticed When Seafood Sold Via Live Stream Was Not Fresh
Tan’s actions first came to light in July 2021 when the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) investigated his company after members of the public complained about him selling products that were not fresh.
The members of the public bought the products from him when he conducted live streams on social media.
Tan, the ex-owner of Chong Qing (Origin) Steamboat, was told by authorities that he would need to apply for a licence if he wanted to continue operating his cold store.
And if the restaurant’s name sounds familiar, it is: It’s the restaurant along Beach Road where an employee was slashed multiple times by a man outside the establishment.
Surprise Check Revealed Unlawful Storing of Seafood and Meat
However, the authorities’ notice fell on deaf ears, for a surprise check revealed that Tan was still operating his cold store without a licence.
But that’s not all that the SFA found during the surprise check, which was conducted in August 2021.
The authorities also found around 19,483kg of seafood and meat products that Tan was storing illegally.
In particular, over 1,000kg of the products had expired.
These products included greying salmon with dark spots and mould, as well as slipper lobster meat that expired in June 2013.
The authorities also found unsealed bags containing meat.
These bags were left exposed on the ground.
When in court, Tan said that he thought he already had a licence and was unaware that he had to apply for it to run a cold storage.
He then claimed that he had applied for the licence after the authorities first investigated his company.
However, according to him, the licence did not come in time before the SFA conducted their surprise check on his business.
Tan added that he had fallen into bankruptcy after he accumulated an excessive amount of unsold products. He was also unable to pay his rent.
Tan’s lawyer echoed this and explained that there were large quantities of seafood and meat products due to the COVID-19 Circuit Breaker back in 2020.
According to his lawyer, the circuit breaker caused a large amount of products to pile up as Tan’s business could not stay open back then.
His lawyer also claimed that after the Circuit Breaker, Tan found out about the expired products and “would have” thrown them away.
Additionally, his lawyer argued that the state of Tan’s refrigerator truck should not factor into his charges as it has been unused for one and a half years.
Regarding the claim about the Circuit Breaker, the prosecutor pointed out that Tan was free to access his cold storage whenever he liked after the two-month-long circuit breaker.
Additionally, he could have disposed of the expired food once he saw them.
He could have also employed the help of a cold storage service provider to help him store the seafood and meat products in a hygienic manner.
Apart from that, the prosecutor mentioned that even though there was no evidence of Tan’s customers suffering from food poisoning after consuming the products he sold, Tan should be issued a sentence severe enough to deter him from committing similar acts in the future due to the potential harm of his actions.
Tan is due to be sentenced later this month, on 22 March.