Bottled water
1.1. Prohibited
The Department is not aware of any prohibited edible non-prescribed products.
1.2. Conditions
Compliance with domestic requirements. Edible non-prescribed goods usually do not require a certificate for this market. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) requires an import permit for all food and food products brought into Singapore, regardless of the mode of transport (for example, by air, land, sea or parcel post).
For detailed information about importing commercial food into Singapore, please refer to the SFA website.
Singapore Food Agency (SFA) does not require consignments of bottled water from Australia to be accompanied by an export health certificate issued by the department. However, the following specific documentation is required to be submitted to SFA (by the importer in Singapore prior to importation).
Mineral water (including spring water and mountain spring water)
- The original copy of the authentication certificate issued by the relevant controlling authority of the country of origin to certify that the mineral water is genuine.
- The certificate should indicate the brand name, type of water, packing size/ type, name and address of manufacturer.
- A site plan showing the water source.
For drinking water (including distilled water, drinking water, mineralised water and reverse osmosis water etc)
- A copy of the licence of the factory where the water was processed and packaged.
All documents are to be submitted to SFA by the importer for every new brand of packaged mineral and drinking water imported by the importer before commencement of import (one-time submission).
Certificate of analysis
SFA also requires the presentation of a Certificate of Analysis issued by an accredited laboratory. Each export consignment has to be accompanied by an updated test (Certificate of Analysis). The test needs to be conducted on the same batch of product that the exporter is exporting. So the exporter needs to re-test their product with each consignment.
The certificate (with every consignment) needs to reflect the results of the test parameters specified by SFA. Test parameters can be found on the SFA website.
Under Clause 10A of Singapore’s Sale of Food Act, where changes are required to be made to the expiry date for food products (for example, following a change in trade description) a new label must be applied. Changes to product expiry dates must not occur by altering existing labels.
Product labelling
Packaged drinking water must be properly labelled with the name of the product, the country of origin and the name and address of the importer in Singapore.
Packaged mineral drinking water must be properly labelled with the name of the product, the country of origin, the name and address of the importer in Singapore, name and location of the source of water and the analytical composition giving characteristics to the natural mineral water.
In addition, natural mineral water that contains more than 1ppm of fluoride will be required to be labelled with the words "contains fluoride" as part of, or in close proximity to the name of the product, or in an otherwise prominent position. Where the natural mineral water contains more than 1.5ppm of fluoride, the label must contain the following statement in addition to the words "contains fluoride":
"The product is not suitable for infants and children under the age of seven years".