Goh Hanyan responds to motion on securing Singapore’s food future

The government will continue to strengthen Singapore’s food supply, support affordability and reduce food waste. Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan gave this assurance in response to the debate on the motion on securing Singapore’s food future in parliament on Wednesday (Sep 9). But building a truly resilient food system ultimately requires everyone - businesses, communities and consumers - to play a role, she said. Her message - buy only what we need, support food redistribution efforts and choose local when we can. Addressing calls to ensure affordable food supply and reduce food waste, Ms Goh said the approach is to strengthen food affordability in a sustainable way. These include encouraging responsible consumption, redistributing edible surplus food and recovering value from unavoidable clean and homogenous food waste. One area being reviewed - date marking practices. The Singapore Food Agency is embarking on a study to assess the safety and feasibility of allowing food that has passed quality-based date marks to be donated while maintaining food safety standards so that more edible food can be redistributed.