Try to work out which bag of tofu cat litter in Singapore is the better deal. You cannot do it, and it is not your fault.
Here is the problem in one line: most tofu litter here is sold by the litre, and a litre is not an amount of litter.
Two bags, both labelled 6 L
On one Singapore marketplace in September 2026, among the best-selling tofu litters, two packs both carry "6 L" on the listing. One also states 1.8 kg. The other also states 2.3 kg.
Same declared volume. A 28% difference in the amount of litter you actually receive.
Several other popular listings state 6 L and no weight at all, so you cannot even find out.
We are not naming the sellers, and this is not an accusation. As far as we can establish it is perfectly legal here — we come back to that below. But it does mean that if you compared those two bags on price per litre, you compared nothing.
What should a litre of tofu litter weigh?
There is an answer, and it is written down.
T/CIQA 11-2020 is the Chinese group standard for tofu cat litter — full title 豆腐猫砂规范, issued by the China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Association, effective 1 January 2021. It is the standard our own litter is tested against, and it specifies thirteen parameters: clumping height, water absorption, clump weight, clump strength, disintegration time, dust content, pulverisation rate, hardness, moisture, ash, deodorisation, formaldehyde — and bulk density.
The bulk density requirement is 550 ± 50 g/L, identical across all three grades. It is measured by pouring the sample through a funnel into a standard volumetric container and dividing mass by volume.
So a genuine 6 litres of tofu litter, measured that way, should weigh 3.0 to 3.6 kg.
No retail "6 L" tofu pack we could find declares anything close. The common Singapore and regional pack is 6 L at 2.5 kg, which works out at about 417 g/L. The 1.8 kg pack above works out at 300 g/L.
The likely explanation, and it is not a scandal
The most probable reading is the boring one: the "6 L" on the bag is the volume of the bag, not a funnel-measured bulk volume of the litter inside it. Loose litter settling in a sack occupies more space than the same litter poured through a funnel under a standard method.
Which is exactly the point. A pack volume is not a quantity of litter. It is a description of the container. Two manufacturers can put different amounts into bags they both call 6 L and neither has said anything untrue.
Why is anyone selling litter by volume at all?
Because the rules differ by country, and Singapore's are permissive.
In the United States, cat litter must be declared by weight. Under the federal packaging rules at 16 CFR §500.7, the net quantity statement "shall be in terms of fluid measure if the commodity is liquid, or in terms of weight or mass if the commodity is solid, semi-solid, or viscous." NIST Handbook 130's Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulation says the same, and permits a volume figure only as a supplementary declaration elsewhere on the pack. Neither names cat litter specifically, but litter is a solid consumer commodity and falls squarely inside the general rule. That is why American litter is sold in pounds.
In the European Union, either basis is allowed. Directive 76/211/EEC covers prepackages made up "by weight or by volume" and requires the nominal quantity "expressed in kilogrammes, grammes, litres, centilitres or millilitres." The phrasing is disjunctive throughout, and no EU instrument we could find names cat litter. That is why European litter is sold in litres.
In Singapore, we looked and could not find a rule either way. The Weights and Measures Act 1975 lets the Minister make an order requiring particular goods to be marked with quantity in a particular manner — but we could not find any order covering cat litter, pet products, or comparable granular household goods. What is clear is that if a quantity is stated it must be in metric units, and it must not overstate the contents. A litres-only label satisfies both.
Two honest limits on that. We could not retrieve the full schedule of the Sale of Goods in Metric Units Order, or the Weights and Measures Office's information booklet chapter on pre-packaged goods; both were inaccessible to us. So read our conclusion as "we could not find a requirement", not as "there is none". If you know of one, tell us and we will correct this page.
Now ours, and where it falls short
Our tofu litter is sold as 2.1 kg. By weight. That is the basis the American rules would require and it is the one that lets you do arithmetic.
But we do not publish our bulk density, so you still cannot convert us into litres to compare against a 6 L bag. Here is the range that leaves you with:
| If our bulk density is… | …then 2.1 kg is |
|---|---|
| 600 g/L (top of the T/CIQA band) | 3.5 L |
| 550 g/L (centre of the band) | 3.8 L |
| 500 g/L (bottom of the band) | 4.2 L |
| 417 g/L (typical retail 6 L pack) | 5.0 L |
That is a spread of 3.5 to 5.0 litres for the same bag, and we cannot tell you which, because we have not measured it.
The part that is genuinely awkward for us
We cite T/CIQA 11-2020 constantly. Our dust figures — 0.66% powder content, 0.36% pulverisation rate — are measured against that standard, and the report numbers are published so you can verify them yourself.
Bulk density is in the same table of the same standard, and we have never tested ours against it.
We have been quoting a standard selectively: the parameters that flatter us are measured and published, and one that would let you price-compare us against a 6 L bag is not. That is not a defensible position for a brand whose whole argument is "check the numbers".
So we are measuring it. Not in a laboratory — the method is simple enough to run properly ourselves: pour the litter through a funnel into a container whose volume has been calibrated with water, strike the top level without tapping or compressing, weigh, repeat three times with fresh sample. When we publish the figure it will come with that method written out, the batch code, and the three individual readings rather than just an average, and it will be labelled as our own measurement rather than a standard-conformant test — the standard specifies container and funnel geometry we are not reproducing. It goes on the product page and on The numbers we publish, whatever it says.
And the price, since we are being direct
On the same marketplace in September 2026, converted to price per kilogram: we were around S$1.68/kg. Two of the tofu litters selling well alongside us were around S$1.03/kg and S$1.53/kg. One was S$2.00/kg.
We are not the cheapest tofu litter in Singapore and this article does not make us so. What we would say for the price is that our figures are measured, method-stated and verifiable, and most of the listings competing with us carry adjectives instead — "ultra low dust", "fast absorption", "powerful deodorization" — with no number attached to any of them. Whether that is worth S$0.65 a kilogram to you is your call, not ours.
Something that surprised us: there is no Western standard at all
We went looking for an ASTM, EN or JIS standard for cat litter. There is none that we could find.
Every cat litter standard we located is Chinese, and almost all are group standards issued by industry associations rather than national ones: T/CIQA 11-2020 for tofu litter, T/SDPIA 05-2022 for cat litter generally, T/SDPIA 02-2023 for water absorption test methods, T/NCMS 001-2023 for bentonite. The one national instrument, GB/T 43839-2024, is a general pet-products safety standard rather than a litter performance standard.
So when a European or American litter brand tells you its product is low-dust or highly absorbent, there is frequently no standard behind the claim — not because the brand is dishonest, but because in those markets nobody has written one.
The number that actually matters, and nobody has it
Price per kilogram is better than price per litre. It is still not the number you want.
What you want is cost per month, which needs a figure for how much litter one cat gets through. We went looking for that too.
There is no independent published figure. What exists is manufacturers describing their own products, and they disagree by roughly a factor of two: one US walnut-shell litter brand suggests about one 14 lb (6.35 kg) bag per cat per month and states that clay users go through roughly double that. A European wood-fibre brand frames it as a change interval instead — up to five weeks before a full change — which works out at roughly one 4.3 kg pack per cat per month by our arithmetic, not theirs. Everything else we found was affiliate content with no stated method.
So here is the only reliable way to get your own number, and it costs nothing: write the date on the bag when you open it, and write the date when you finish it. Do that twice. Now you know your household's actual consumption, and you can turn any price per kilogram into a monthly cost. It is the one figure in this whole subject that is specific to you, and it is more useful than anything a manufacturer can tell you — including us.
What to do in the aisle
- Convert everything to price per kilogram. Price divided by declared weight. That is the only comparison that holds across brands.
- If a pack states only litres, ask the seller for the net weight. They should know it. If they cannot produce it, you have learned something about how well they know their own product.
- Do not compare a litre figure from one brand to a litre figure from another. The two litres are not the same amount of litter, and neither seller has to make them so.
- Ask which standard any performance claim is measured against, and ask for the report number. "Low dust" with no number and no method is an adjective.
- Time one bag. Open date, finish date. Then you have your own cost per month and you never need anyone else's estimate again.
The related pieces, if you want them: Tofu Cat Litter in Singapore: An Honest Buyer's Guide, Cat Litter Dust: The Two Numbers That Matter, Formaldehyde in Cat Litter, and Automatic Litter Boxes and Tofu Litter, which covers why pellet size decides whether tofu litter works in a self-cleaning box.
Written September 2026. T/CIQA 11-2020 (豆腐猫砂规范, Specification on tofu cat litter) is a group standard of the China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Association, effective 1 January 2021; the bulk density requirement of 550 ± 50 g/L and its funnel test method are in its Table 1 and clause 6.7. US labelling rules cited are 16 CFR Part 500 §§500.2, 500.7 and 500.14, and NIST Handbook 130 (2026) Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulation §§6.4 and 6.12. EU rules cited are Directive 76/211/EEC and Directive 2007/45/EC. Singapore provisions cited are the Weights and Measures Act 1975, sections 16, 18 and 19, and Weights and Measures Office guidance for suppliers of pre-packaged goods; we were unable to access the Sale of Goods in Metric Units Order schedule or the WMO information booklet, and our conclusion should be read accordingly. Pack weights, volumes and prices are Singapore marketplace listings on 7 September 2026 and change frequently. Consumption figures are manufacturer guidance from Naturally Fresh and Cat's Best and are labelled as such. Our own litter figures come from third-party testing under T/CIQA 11-2020, with report numbers published on this site for verification; bulk density is not among the parameters we have had tested.
