Chicken meat mislabelled as pork skin; Giant supermarket issues apology

Singapore — Giant supermarket has issued an apology after a member of the public highlighted a chicken product mislabelled as Australian pork skin.

On Tuesday (Aug 31), one MorteensG took to Reddit to share a photo of a rather confusing product.

“So, as a Muslim, this got me very confused while shopping for groceries,” wrote the Redditor.

Attached was a photo of boneless chicken legs but with a price tag label noting it was Australian pork skin.

“We are aware of the mislabelling in one of our stores and have taken swift action to rectify the mistake,” said a Giant representative on Wednesday (Sep 1).

“Such incidents are treated seriously, and we have done a check through in-store products and briefed our team members to ensure they do not happen again.

“We thank our customers for bringing this to our attention and apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson added in a Channel News Asia report.

In another mislabelling accident highlighted on Aug 13, NTUC FairPrice apologised on Facebook after one of its chicken products was “erroneously labelled as pork” at its Paya Lebar Quarter outlet.

“We treat this matter very seriously and have put in additional processes to prevent any errors of this nature from occurring in the future,” said NTUC FairPrice.

“We recognise the sensitivities surrounding such an error and sincerely apologise for any offence caused.”

It appealed to customers who find any labelling discrepancies to approach NTUC FairPrice staff immediately, so it could be rectified in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, netizens wondered if halal and non-halal items were not properly separated, thus creating possible issues.

“NTUC… are you telling me the workstation for halal and non-halal is the same?” asked Facebook user Tysha Zie.

“NTUC Halal back-end food production (from cutting, packing and labelling) should be manned only by Muslim staff,” noted Facebook user Suzanah Surati.

“That will ensure that the religious compliance is met. And all Halal meat and poultry kitchen sections should be separated. So NTUC, are you doing that?”

Facebook user Piecing Peaces attached a photo of the item in question. “Fresh minced chicken” was labelled as “pork loin slice” from Australia.

“First thing’s first. Minced and slices are two different cuts… a clear indication that this product had just been mislabelled,” the netizen added. /TISG