SINGAPORE: An e-commerce retailer has been fined S$1,600 for selling pre-packed food products labelled with tampered expiry dates, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said in a media release on Wednesday (Feb 20).
GoPurpose Inc – which according to its website sells sustainable lifestyle products and organic agriculture – had tampered with the expiry date labels on several Chaga Health food products, AVA said.
The authority said it had received feedback in June 2018 that GoPurpose had sold a batch of pre-packed Chaga Health food products that were beyond their recommended expiry dates.
“Subsequent investigations revealed that GoPurpose Inc Pte Ltd had replaced the original expiry date-markings on the food products with new expiry date-markings that were beyond the manufacturer’s recommended expiry date,” AVA said.
The products affected include “wild lingonberries”, “pine bud powder” and “spruce tip powder”, according to photos from AVA.
Pre-packed Chaga Health food products with tampered expiry date markings. (Photo: AVA)
“AVA takes a serious view of false and inaccurate labelling of food,” it added in its statement.
“All pre-packed food products for sale in Singapore must be labelled according to the general labelling requirements of the Singapore Food Regulations. Accurate date-markings of expiry dates for products is important as products after their expiry dates might have deteriorated in quality.”
Those convicted under the Sale of Food Act may be fined up to S$1,000 for their first offence and up to S$2,000 on subsequent convictions.
According to the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) website, GoPurpose is an e-commerce platform that retails organic items from vendors worldwide. It was first founded in 2013 as a social crowdfunding platform.
