Every morning, food samples are laid out on a long table at a pristine laboratory run by a German firm in Singapore – but they’re not meant for chefs or gourmets.
As reported by AFP, testing company TUV SUD is watching out for contaminants that could harm consumers in Singapore and other parts of Asia, which has recently been rocked by food-safety scandals.
Sales of US fast food giant McDonald’s in China were hammered this year following news reports alleging that a supplier mixed expired meat with fresh deliveries.
A Taiwan company is currently embroiled in a widening scare after it was found selling hundreds of tonnes of waste “gutter oil” to food makers, bakeries and restaurants forcing the recall of cakes, bread, instant noodles, cookies, dumplings and other food items at home and in Hong Kong.
On a recent visit by AFP to the TUV SUD lab in Singapore, chemists in white gowns carried out a battery of tests on milk powder from the Philippines, seafood from Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia and locally processed food for consumption in the city-state as well as other Asian countries.
“I’ve been working in the industry for the past 25 years and every few years there’s something major,” said Chong Kok Yong, a vice president responsible for food safety at TUV SUD in Singapore.
