Pig Blood Products Return to Singapore Restaurants After 27 Years

Pig blood products are back on restaurant menus in Singapore after being banned for more than 27 years. The popular food ingredient was prohibited since 1999 when a deadly virus outbreak occurred. Now, restaurants like Haidilao are serving pig blood dishes again after the government approved new safety rules. The hotpot restaurant announced the return of this favorite food on social media in late May.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) gave permission for these products to come back in April. They approved imports from a special slaughterhouse in Thailand after doing safety checks. The company CP Foods is the first to bring pig blood products into Singapore under these new rules. This marks an important change in Singapore's food safety policies after nearly three decades.

CP Foods plans to sell 6,000 boxes of pig blood products to start. Each box weighs 400 grams and costs $6.95 for customers. People can buy these products at major stores like Cold Storage, FairPrice, and Giant. The company also wants to work with coffee shops and hawker stalls to add pig blood to popular local dishes like pig organ soup and kway chap.

The original ban started in 1999 because of a serious health crisis. The Nipah virus outbreak killed a worker at a meat processing plant in Singapore. Nipah virus can spread from animals to people and between humans too. Officials became very worried about animal blood products because the virus can also spread through contaminated food.

To bring pig blood back safely, importers must follow very strict safety rules now. They need to check animal health carefully and collect blood using clean methods. The processing, handling, and storage must meet the highest safety standards. Companies must also keep detailed records of everything they do and test their products regularly to make sure they are safe.

The SFA reminds all consumers to be careful when buying and preparing these products. People should only buy food from licensed stores that follow proper safety rules. They must cook pig blood products thoroughly before eating them to kill any harmful germs. People should also store food safely at the right temperature to prevent any contamination that could make them sick.