# Food we can bring in through air with us & sea shipment



## subodh050273 (Jun 14, 2014)

HI
I am looking to move to Singapore in next two months. The employer has arranged for 40 ft sea shipment as part of my relocation allowance.
We have lived in Switzerland where the restrictions to food items are very few & clear.
While I get assistance from Singapore office, I was curious to know where I could get a comprehensive list of items which can be brought in by sea / air related to food.
More specific questions would be "my wife has to take certain medicines daily twice. With same API content, she has issues with some formulations & therefore an take only specific brands e.g. Novartis. So how do I bring a lot of medicine stock before we can find an equivalent in Singapore".
Similarly, some of the spices which are available at Singapore (I checked quite number of indian shops on line) are sort of "basic quality" & more typical. We use lot a variety of spices (not an quantity!! but for flavour). So could we take those with us or by sea. Similarly, couldwe take all standard items such as dahls, lentils etc. through sea shipment. We would have lot of space in the sea shipment as we are taking only cloths & a very few furniture items.


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Have you read the ICA's Web site yet where they answer these questions rather well? Start there if you haven't then reply with any remaining questions.


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## subodh050273 (Jun 14, 2014)

Thanks for a quick response.
Yes. It clearly defines well what is controlled or prohibited. But then there is a host of things which we can bring in. ON internet there are lot of posts which "warn" against bringing anything!
While moving the Switzerland it was quite clear. The list was very comprehensive & gave all categories of things e.g. pets, food, furniture electronics, almost item by item. So, there was no need to watch out for fine prints or foot notes as we say.
Knowing that Singapore laws are very strict, we do not want to unintentionally & get into trouble right at the entry in the country.


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## simonsays (Feb 11, 2009)

if you bring dry rations they can be held by AVA

have you been to Singapore?

in little India you get everything from India ... from dry rations to vegetables ..

online shops? not many use them when you can walk and choose what came by plane yesterday ...

why bother?


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

I'm not sure what's unclear. I'll summarize. Stay clear of meats, seafood, other animal products, and fresh fruits and vegetables since they are subject to specific controls that might be difficult to navigate. You can bring a reasonable quantity of processed/packaged foods for personal consumption. Reasonable quantity is generally defined as 5 kilos per person. You can also bring 2 liters of wine and 1 liter of beer, as one popular example. (And you probably should. Alcohol is expensive here.)

I agree with Ecureilx. I cannot fathom what Indian ingredients you'd need to bring from Switzerland (!) to Singapore. You do realize Singapore has one of the largest Indian communities (in percentage terms) in the world, yes?


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## Bellthorpe (Jun 23, 2013)

subodh050273 said:


> More specific questions would be "my wife has to take certain medicines daily twice. With same API content, she has issues with some formulations & therefore an take only specific brands e.g. Novartis


I find that hard to believe. Generic substitutions for name drugs are identical.


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