Singapore Proposes an Amendment to Food Regulations to Delete a Selection of Standards of Identity

On June 21, 2021, The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) issued a proposal “Amendments to the Food Regulations to delete standards of identity”. 

The document highlights the following key points:

• Many food products in the market do not have a standard of identity prescribed in the Food Regulations, for example, breakfast cereals, 3-in-1 powdered beverages, frozen cooked meals etc.
• Regulations to delete the standards of identity in Regulations 39 to 260, except where these continue to be needed for food safety reasons or to support the policies that have an impact on public health.
• For the standards of identity that are retained, the industry is required to ensure compliance with these standards.
• For standards of identity that are deleted from the Food Regulations, the industry can refer to Codex Alimentarius Commission or the Singapore Standards.
• The proposed deletion of the standards of identity does not affect food safety.
• All food products imported, manufactured and sold in Singapore must comply with prevailing food safety provisions, such as the use of food additives and maximum limits for incidental constituents, as well as relevant labelling requirements.
• Plans to develop a food category system in future that would be based on the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (CODEX STAN 192-1995).
• SFA will work closely with the industry to develop the food category system with the associated descriptors.
• A list of standards of identity proposed to be deleted /retained can be found in Annex I.

The proposal is open for public comments until 20 August 2021 and the amendments are planned to come into effect in April 2022.

To view the complete document and the Annex, check out the Food News Monitoring System.