Singapore Parliament Passes New Food Safety and Security Bill
The Singapore Parliament passed the Food Safety and Security Bill (FSSB) on January 8, 2025. The Bill seeks to consolidate and refresh existing food-related legislation; strengthen Singapore’s food safety regime; and keep pace with emerging challenges in safeguarding food security. In an opening speech prior to the second reading of the FSSB on January 9, 2025, Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, further explained that the Singapore Food Agency was formed in 2019 to consolidate food safety and security functions under one agency and that “[the FSSB] serves to consolidate the relevant food-related laws that were enacted at different points in our history.” Currently, elements of the law are scattered in nine Acts. The Singapore Food Agency is a statutory board under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore.
The FSSB, which will be implemented in phases between the end of 2025 and 2028, will replace the Sale of Food Act of 1973. The timing of the implementation was mentioned in a speech by Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister, Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, which was also delivered on January 9. Both the FSSB and the Sale of Food Act of 1973 exclude packaging—except for edible packaging—from the definition of “food.”
Section 128 of the FSSB specifies that the Director-General, Food Administration & Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Food Agency, may recall a food contact article that: causes food to no longer be safe, if there is doubt about whether it may contaminate food, or it is mislabeled or incorrectly identified. The FSSA also specifies that the Singapore Food Agency may, by regulations, set out standards relating to any of the following: (e) safety standards for regulated food contact articles, including – (i) prohibitions or restrictions on substances that may be used to manufacture a regulated food contact article; and (ii) prohibitions or restriction on the use of regulated food contact articles with food (see Section 309).