On a typical day, kueh maker Jian Bo Tiong Bahru Shui Kueh serves “a few thousand” customers across its more than 20 stores located around the island. The firm, which both makes kueh products and operates retail outlets selling them, has built up a following over several decades.

However, it took just one day to lose most of the customers — at least temporarily — after the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) announced on Wednesday (July 27) that it was ordering the suspension of operations for the 64-year-old homegrown brand.

This was because it discovered that some of the food items it sold contained high levels of the food preservative sorbic acid.

It was later found that this was not the case for Jian Bo — which is listed as Tiong Bahru Tian Bo Shui Kueh in government records — and the order was thus revoked on Thursday. This was from an SFA letter that the firm posted on social media.

TODAY has asked SFA to verify the letter and comment on the development.

The implicated snacks and food items sold by the company were:

Chwee kueh (steamed rice cakes garnished with pickled radish)

Nine layer kueh (multi-coloured steamed cakes made mostly of rice and tapioca flour)

Tapioca kueh (tapioca cake)

Aside from having to shutter most of its stores on Wednesday, Jian Bo's clients, which include hotels, began questioning the quality of its products and wanted a clarification from SFA before they resumed using these products, the company's director Eric Ang said.

Mr Ang told TODAY on Thursday that SFA’s announcement had tarnished the reputation of the brand. 

“The damage is huge… It’s a reputation I have been trying to maintain, but within a day and that’s it, (gone).”

The company made it to the Michelin Guide Singapore's Bib Gourmand 2021 list.

Mr Ang said that although he has yet to work out the financial impact of SFA’s decision, it is "definitely not going to be small".

However, he has no plans to seek compensation from SFA.

He does hope, though, that the agency can issue a public statement to clear Jian Bo’s name.

“It really affects Jian Bo’s reputation. We hope SFA can help us, as an SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise).”

ASSUMED EVERYTHING WAS OKAY

Mr Ang said that Jian Bo, which produces a range of savoury Chinese kuehs and other traditional fare such as bak zhang (glutinous rice dumplings with meat filling) and nasi lemak (coconut-infused rice with assorted fried food items), has been careful in following SFA’s regulations.

However, he admitted that it had used sorbic acid as a food preservative months ago. None of the products used benzoic acid.

These acids are common food additives used to preserve food.

A food scientist told TODAY on Wednesday that they are relatively safe when consumed in low quantities, though some studies have shown that under certain conditions, these compounds may get mutated to something potentially harmful.

Under Singapore's food regulations, the use of these additives are banned in kueh products, except for its filling. If used in the filling, they should not exceed the permissible limits set out in the rules.

Even so, Mr Ang said that the company had sought clarification with SFA before April this year via email, asking if it was permissible to include sorbic acid in its kuehs, and received a reply that it was.

Then, when a separate team from SFA did a random sampling of the company’s products in April and found the presence of the sorbic acid, he was told that the additive should not be present despite what SFA’s email said.

“From that day onward, we stopped using that kind of product (sorbic acid),” Mr Ang said.

He added that at no point during the interaction with SFA in April was Jian Bo told to cease operation, and were informed only to stop using the additive.

So, he said that it came as a surprise when the authority arrived at the company's factory on Tuesday to notify the firm of the regulation breach, which was based on the products manufactured in April.

“It’s been so long since April, so I assumed everything was okay (after the initial check),” Mr Ang said.

He felt that SFA should have done a random sampling of the company’s recent products instead.

“We have been abiding by which type of preservatives we should use or not use.”

In any case, with the suspension order revoked, Mr Ang said that Jian Bo intends to resume operations on Friday.

When asked how he intends to take the company forward after this incident, Mr Ang said that he plans to thank “loyal customers” for their support by offering promotions on its products.

WHAT HAPPENED

On Wednesday morning, the SFA announced that it detected high amounts of benzoic or sorbic acid in the products of nine kueh manufacturers, including Jian Bo Tiong Bahru Shui Kueh.

It said that it would suspend the production, distribution and sale of the implicated kueh products, since the manufacturers were found to have not complied with regulations.

On Wednesday evening, Jian Bo issued a statement on its social media platforms to dispute SFA’s findings.

It added that it had even sent its products to a laboratory on Tuesday, after being notified of the supposed breach of regulations, to test for the presence of the additives. It received a negative result on Wednesday.

The company then submitted the report to SFA to seek clarification on the suspension.

On Thursday afternoon, Jian Bo provided an update on the same channels, which included a copy of a letter from SFA that it had received in the morning.

The letter acknowledged the laboratory report and said that the food agency was revoking the suspension order.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by LOW YOUJIN

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