SINGAPORE - Supermarket chain FairPrice has restricted the sale of Udders ice cream with alcohol content that exceeds 0.5 per cent to comply with the Liquor Control Act.
Ice cream that has more than 0.5 per cent alcohol in it cannot be sold between 10.30pm and 7am at its outlets. This includes four of Udders' flavours: Rum Rum Raisin (3.9 per cent alcohol), Tira-miss-u (3.8 per cent alcohol), Wineberries (3.5 per cent alcohol) and Orange Liqueur Dark Choc (2.7 per cent alcohol).
A can of Tiger Beer has 5 per cent alcohol by volume.
A spokesman for FairPrice told The Straits Times on Friday (April 20) that it has implemented the move after "extensive consultation with our supplier" of Udders Rum Rum Raisin ice cream, clarification with the authorities and "taking into consideration feedback from customers".
"We have restricted sales of Udders ice cream that contains alcohol content, exceeding 0.5 per cent, from 10.30pm to 7am," said the spokesman.
She added that the move was "to comply with the Liquor Control Act, which defines products with more than 0.5 per cent volume of alcohol as liquor".
FairPrice is currently rolling out signs to the affected stores to inform its customers of the policy.
Udders founder and director Wong Peck Lin told ST on Friday that the restriction does not affect its stores, which operate under a different licence.
She said Udders has been selling alcoholic ice cream in FairPrice stores since last year.
The ice cream came into the spotlight after Facebook user Clinton Carnegie uploaded a photo of the sign at a FairPrice Xpress outlet on Wednesday.
The sign reads: "Udders ice cream. No sale of Rum Raisin from 10.30pm to 7am".
Mr Carnegie told ST that he had spotted the sign at the outlet in Bedok South Avenue 1.
"I just wanted to buy ice cream and came across the label on the freezer," he said, adding that his favourite ice cream was rum and raisin.
FairPrice currently sells Udders ice cream at its Cheers outlets, FairPrice Xpress and FairPrice Finest stores.
Other than these stores, Udders' alcoholic ice cream is sold at warehouse-cum-market Foodie Market Place, but it is not affected by the restriction as it closes at 8pm on weekdays and 6pm on weekends.
According to Udders' website, its Rum Rum Raisin flavour is from its premium range and has "twice as much liqueur as the other liqueur flavours".
When ST visited FairPrice Finest at Junction 8 on Friday night, Udders' alcoholic ice cream was being sold with no signs.
Other alcoholic ice cream on sale there included Baileys Original Ice Cream, which had just 0.43 per cent alcohol.
The label on Haagen Daz's Rum Raisin ice cream indicated that it had alcohol content but did not specify how much.
According to the 2015 Liquor Control Act, "liquor" means a beverage containing more than 0.5 per cent ethanol by mass or volume; a mixture of ethanol and some other substance or liquid (including water) and containing more than 0.5 per cent ethanol by mass or volume; or any other substance prescribed by the regulations as liquor.
ST has contacted other supermarkets for more information.
Additional reporting by Tay Hui Zhen
