On 23 October 2023, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) issued a notice to remove melamine-related requirements for imports of milk, milk, products and milk-containing products from China. The main points are as follows:

1) SFA has reviewed the import requirements for milk, milk products and products containing milk from China and will be removing the Section Q import requirements stated in https://www.sfa.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/import-requirements-ofspecific-food-products with effect from 1 November 2023.

2) These melamine-related requirements were put in place following the 2008 milk incident in China, where melamine was detected in local infant milk products. Since then, China implemented various measures to strengthen the supervision and administrative processes of their dairy products, including tighter production licensing, stronger inspection, detection, monitoring and evaluation, and more severe penalties for products found with melamine across the dairy food chain (i.e., from breeding of dairy cattle, purchase and transport of fresh and raw milk to dairy processing establishments).

3) Milk and milk products (e.g., liquid milk, milk powder, cheese, butter, ice cream and yoghurt) imported from China will continue to be subjected to SFA’s checks and must comply with import requirements (Section A, B and C) stated in https://www.sfa.gov.sg/docs/defaultsource/default-document-library/import-requirements-of-specific-food-products.

Learn more: https://www.sfa.gov.sg/docs/default-source/circulars/2023/2023-10-23-trade-circular---removal-of-melamine-related-requirements.pdf