The Singapore Food Safety and Security Bill has passed Parliament, aiming to consolidate and standardize under one piece of legislation relevant food laws that were enacted at different points prior to and following the formation of the Singapore Food Agency in 2019. The act also includes changes to modernize Singapore’s food safety regulatory system and strengthen its food chain resilience.
The act will be implemented in phases between 2025 and 2028.
The Food Safety and Security Bill aims to improve its regulatory oversight of food by providing for more comprehensive offenses that apply along all steps of the food supply chain, regardless of commodity type and business activity, and standardizing penalty frameworks including aligning maximum penalties. For first-time offenses, the act would set maximum penalties of $50,000 SGD for businesses and $25,000 SGD and/or jail time of up to 24 months for individuals.
The act also gives the Director-General, Food Administration (DG FA) new authorities to enable more effective and faster response to food safety threats, including:
- The authority to issue directives to deal with threats, primary production, or the health of food-producing animals to mitigate or prevent a threat to the food supply, including implementing measures to prevent the spread of diseases on farms, such as culling or animal movement
- The authority to respond to food safety and hygiene lapses at licensed food businesses in a more targeted way by requiring corrective actions by the individual, instead of affecting the entire food business
- To manage contamination from food vending machines and equipment used in the food production process, the authority to require the owner of a food vending machine or equipment to ensure cleanliness and production of safe and suitable food
- The authority to extend directives to animal feed producers on the maintenance of premises, equipment, and contamination control.
To strengthen food chain resilience, the Food Safety and Security Bill also implements a minimum stockholding requirement for entities along the food supply chain to hold stocks of essential food items or agri-food production inputs. It also requires local farms to set farm management plans.
Previous updates on the Singapore Food Safety and Security Bill covered its intent to standardize regulation of novel foods and production processes, and to enhance food safety to better prevent foodborne illness.
