Standardising 'use by', 'best before' dates of food may result in additional packaging costs: Koh Poh Koon
Dr Koh was responding to a question on whether the ministry would consider updating and standardising such labels
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SINGAPORE: Standardising the "use by", "best before" dates of food may result in additional packaging costs as well as an additional "compliance burden" for food manufacturers, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon.
Dr Koh was on Wednesday (Feb 7) responding to a question from MP He Ting Ru (WP-Sengkang) on whether the ministry would consider updating and standardising such labels to reduce confusion over whether food needs to be disposed of for safety reasons and reduce potential food waste.
Speaking in Parliament, Dr Koh said that both "use by", "best before" dates are "internationally accepted" terms under the Codex general standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods, and is commonly used by manufacturers locally and overseas.
Under Singapore’s regulations, “use by” and “best before” are both used to indicate the expiry date on food products beyond which the food product is not permitted to be sold due to possible deterioration in quality. They are internationally accepted terms from Codex, the food standards body established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. They are the general standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods, commonly used by food manufacturers both locally and overseas. Standardising the use of date marks to a specific term will require the industry to tailor the packaging to the Singapore market, adding to the compliance burden. This may result in additional packaging costs which the industry can pass on to consumers. Given the small size of Singapore’s market, overseas food manufacturers may also choose not to change their packaging to meet the country’s requirements. This could inadvertently reduce Singapore’s food import sources. Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon said this in reply to an MP’s question in Parliament on Wednesday (Feb 7).
Under Singapore's Sale of Food Act, these are dates permanently marked on prepacked food signifying the expiry date of that item.
Expiry date in this case means that food – when kept under storage conditions instructed – may not "retain its normal wholesomeness, nature, substance and quality" past the date.
This can be labelled as "use by", "best before", "expiry date" or "sell by". It is illegal to sell food that has passed these dates, according to the Singapore Food Agency's website.
"Standardising the use of date marks to a specific term will require the industry to tailor their packaging to the Singapore market, adding to compliance burden," said Dr Koh.
"This may result in additional packaging costs which the industry can pass on to consumers."
Given that Singapore's market is small, overseas food manufacturers may choose not to change their packaging to meet requirements and this could reduce food import sources for the country, pointed out Dr Koh.
In response, Ms He reiterated that there has been feedback of confusion over such labels and asked if there was anything else which could be done to minimise this.
She asked if the ministry would consider pilot partnerships with supermarkets to promote a more standardised approach for food products under house brands, as supermarkets have control over the packaging in such cases.
However, Dr Koh said that given Singapore imports the vast majority of its food from different source countries - some of whom have a different form of labelling of expiry dates - it is inevitable that there will be a mix of different labels.
Asking house brands to comply to one standard will not resolve the problem, he added.
"At the end of the day, consumers must take both "use by", and "best before" as equivalent to mean that anything after that date, the food is unlikely to be fresh or may not be in its original state that is fit for consumption," said Dr Koh.
