SFA study set to find out whether food that has passed best before date can be donated

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is embarking on a study to assess the safety and feasibility of allowing food that has passed their "use by"/"best before" dates to be donated, while maintaining food safety standards.

This was revealed by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan during the debate on a motion calling on the Government to enhance food resilience and support efforts to reduce food wastage through partnerships with all of society.

The private member's motion — tabled by People's Action Party (PAP) MPs Nadia Ahmad Samdin, Valerie Lee, Ng Shi Xuan and GPC chairperson Poh Li San — sought to ensure that Singaporeans will continue to have access to affordable food supply amid geopolitical uncertainties and climate-related risks.

On the issue of food wastage, MPs had called for more Government support for food redistribution initiatives.

This includes the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act passed in 2024, protecting food donors from liability if specific safety conditions are met.

To this, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary stated that there are currently no international guidelines on how long food remains safe for consumption beyond its expiry date.

Notwithstanding this, the SFA study, could enable more edible food to be redistributed rather than discarded.

Findings from the study are expected to be shared next year, she added.

Affordability and local production

During the debate, MP Poh Li San, who represents Sembawang West SMC, called for a more coordinated food import policy and food distribution ecosystem.

"We must make sure that we have some capacity to produce food. More importantly, that all of us, rich or poor, have access to safe, fresh and affordable food at all times."

She also called for local food production capability to be part of the Republic's Total Defence national security framework, highlighting that the present self-sufficiency rate is below 10 per cent.

Sembawang GRC MP Ng Shi Xuan suggested shifting the approach of growing local in Singapore Food Story 2.0 (SFS), to producing local.

Ng, a business director at a homegrown company, proposed focusing on protein security and the role it can play as an additional production pathway under SFS 2.0.

To this, he called on the Government to clarify how Singapore intends to sustain and translate its investments in alternative proteins into enduring capabilities.

Resilience and food waste

Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Nadia Ahmad Samdin pointed out that even as farm productivity improves, the resilience scorecard will need to reflect where vulnerabilities remain.

Illustrating this, Nadia highlighted that even if a food item is imported from several countries, they could all be exposed to similar disease outbreaks, weather patterns, or logistics routes.

"Where many farms depend heavily on the same input, a shock to that input can become a shock to the whole pillar," she pointed out.

Meanwhile, Pasir Ris-Changi GRC MP Valerie Lee, continuing on the thread of vulnerabilities, suggested going upstream to strengthen the resilience of supply chains that connect sources to Singapore.

This, she said, can be strengthened through global partnerships, noting that the Singapore-New Zealand Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies , and the rice agreements with Thailand and Vietnam, presented examples of options in crisis.

"We should not only secure the food. We should design the pathway for the food to reach Singapore," she said, adding that a good food partnership should not simply be a promise of supply, but an architecture of options.

Valerie also pointed to the Republic's 790,000 tonnes of food wasted last year, and the roughly 18 per cent food recycling rate as a potential to do more.

To this, she suggested looking at food rescue not just as waste management, but also supply recovery.

Lee also called on the Government to work with the relevant agencies to identify suitable land or spaces that could be used for community food-rescue storage.

Responding to the debate, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu pointed out that Singapore has built a food system that has weathered a pandemic, conflicts, and climate stresses.

"This resilience is the result of deliberate choices and collective effort by the Government, the industry, and our people. It must be renewed with every generation." [[nid:730828]]

新加坡食品局 (SFA) 正在进行一项研究，以评估允许捐赠已过“使用期限”/“最佳食用日期”的食品的安全性和可行性，同时保持食品安全标准。

永续发展及环境部高级政务次长吴汉彦在辩论一项动议时透露了这一消息。该动议呼吁政府加强粮食韧性，并通过与全社会的合作来支持减少粮食浪费的努力。

这项由人民行动党议员纳迪亚·艾哈迈德·萨姆丁、瓦莱丽·李、黄世轩和GPC主席傅丽珊提出的私人议员动议，旨在确保在当前地缘政治不确定性和气候相关风险下，新加坡人能够继续获得价格合理的食品供应。

关于食物浪费问题，议员们呼吁政府加大对食物再分配计划的支持力度。

这其中包括 2024 年通过的《好撒玛利亚人食品捐赠法案》，该法案规定，如果满足特定的安全条件，食品捐赠者将免于承担责任。

对此，高级议会秘书表示，目前尚无国际准则规定食品在过期后多长时间内仍可安全食用。

尽管如此，SFA 的研究或许能够让更多可食用的食物得到重新分配，而不是被丢弃。

她补充说，该研究结果预计将于明年公布。

价格合理且本地化生产

在辩论中，代表三巴旺西单选区的国会议员傅丽珊呼吁制定更加协调的食品进口政策和食品分销体系。

“我们必须确保具备一定的粮食生产能力。更重要的是，确保我们所有人，无论贫富，都能随时获得安全、新鲜且价格合理的食物。”

她还呼吁将本地粮食生产能力纳入共和国的全面防御国家安全框架，并强调目前的自给率低于 10%。

三巴旺集选区议员黄世轩建议将新加坡食品故事 2.0 (SFS) 中“种植本地”的策略转变为“生产本地”。

一家本土公司的业务总监 Ng 提议重点关注蛋白质安全，以及它在 SFS 2.0 下作为额外生产途径所能发挥的作用。

对此，他呼吁政府澄清新加坡打算如何维持和转化其在替代蛋白领域的投资，使其成为持久的能力。

韧性和食物浪费

宏茂桥集选区议员纳迪亚·艾哈迈德·萨姆丁指出，即使农业生产力有所提高，韧性评分卡也需要反映出仍然存在的脆弱性。

纳迪亚举例说明，即使某种食品是从多个国家进口的，它们都可能受到类似疾病爆发、天气模式或物流路线的影响。

她指出：“许多农场严重依赖相同的投入，因此，该投入受到冲击可能会对整个支柱产业造成冲击。”

与此同时，白沙-樟宜集选区议员李慧玲继续从脆弱性的角度出发，建议从上游入手，加强连接新加坡货源的供应链的韧性。

她表示，这可以通过全球伙伴关系得到加强，并指出新加坡-新西兰基本物资贸易协定以及与泰国和越南的大米协定，都是危机时期可供选择的例子。

“我们不仅要确保粮食供应，还要设计粮食运抵新加坡的途径，”她说道，并补充说，良好的粮食伙伴关系不应仅仅是供应承诺，而应是多种选择的架构。

瓦莱丽还指出，去年爱尔兰共和国浪费了 79 万吨食物，而食物回收率只有大约 18%，这表明还有很大的改进空间。

对此，她建议将食物救援不仅视为废物管理，还视为物资回收。

李还呼吁政府与相关机构合作，确定可用于社区食物救援储存的合适土地或空间。

针对这场辩论，永续发展及环境部长傅海燕指出，新加坡已经建立了一个经受住了疫情、冲突和气候压力考验的食品体系。

“这种韧性是政府、行业和人民经过深思熟虑的选择和共同努力的结果。它必须代代相传，不断更新。” [[nid:730828]]