FOOD PRODUCERS

FOOD PRODUCERS:

(Labelling of trans fat in products): 12.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Health in view of the rising concerns over the harmful effect of trans fat on health, whether the Health Promotion Board will make it compulsory for all food producers to label the use of trans fat in their products so that consumers can make informed decisions when consuming such products.

Mr Heng Chee How (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, Sir, Mdm Halimah asked if we should require compulsory labelling of trans fat on food products. The Ministry as well as the Health Promotion Board are monitoring the situation of trans fat in our food supply and consumption pattern, and we will evaluate if we should impose more

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stringent measures against trans fats usage.

Presently, if you look at other countries in the world, only Denmark has used legislation to limit the trans fat content of oil used in food and they limit it to 2%. Canada and the United States have imposed compulsory labelling. All other countries have taken a voluntary non-legislative approach as far as labelling of trans fat is concerned.

In Canada and the US, the consumption of trans fat exceeds 2% of their total calorie intake. In comparison for Singapore, we consume much lower, less than 1% of the total calorie intake; and this works out to less than 2 grams of trans fat a day. When we look at this in comparison with the World Health Organisation's recommendation of no more than 1%, then Singapore's consumption is within that, as opposed to the US and Canadian consumption which is twice that.

Nevertheless, we will continue to educate the public on the harmful effects of trans fat and to advise the public to cut down on fat intake. Since the year 2004, the Health Promotion Board has actively engaged our local food manufacturers to reduce trans fat in the manufacture of their goods and also to promote the use of voluntary labelling. Increasingly, food manufacturers have voluntarily listed the trans fat content of products such as in instant noodles, convenience meals, snack items and 3-in-1 beverages.

The Health Promotion Board's website publishes the trans fat content of more than 300 common food items. We will continue to update and expand the list to include products by brand names.

In addition, the Health Promotion Board's Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) scheme, and that is the pyramid symbol

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that you can see on certain products, is a form of positive labelling that helps consumers identify healthier food products that are lower in fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugar. To date, about 150 products, including bread, biscuits, cookies, cakes and margarine, carry the Healthier Choice Symbol labels and contain zero or lower amounts of trans fat compared to the regular versions.

Over the next few months, the Health Promotion Board will work on nutrition claims that can be allowed on food products with low or negligible trans fat. So this would allow the manufacturers to make these claims, provided they satisfy certain criteria which are being worked out. And this would encourage the food industry to voluntarily reduce or remove trans fat in their products and would also result in voluntary nutrition labelling on products with low or no trans fat.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: Sir, if there is no labelling and people will be consuming products that contain trans fat without being aware of it, over time, there will be the accumulative effect, and the accumulative effect will result in exceeding the safe limits prescribed by WHO. So would that not therefore mean that it is better for the Ministry to consider compulsory labelling, rather than to wait for this accumulative effect to take place because people are not aware that they are consuming trans fat? The second question I would like to ask is that the Minister of State mentioned about the Healthier Choice Symbol. Healthier Choice Symbol is very selective. Whereas if you opt for compulsory labelling, it is compulsory for all food manufacturers to alert consumers that their food products contain trans fat. So it is quite different when you talk about proactive methods through Healthier Choice Symbol as against the compulsory labelling. My third question to the Minister of State is: when will the Ministry consider trans fat labelling and, if

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so, when will it be implemented after all the monitoring has been done?

Mr Heng Chee How: Sir, I believe the Member would agree with me that the outcome that we all look for is a population of healthy Singaporeans. In other words, whatever we do, the end result must be that, given the advice that we offer through public education, given the regulation that we do, given the products that we allow to be sold, as well as the practice of good healthy lifestyles, the combination of all these things, that is the job of the regulators as well as the responsibility of the individuals and the households that we produce health in our population. So if we agree on this and we apply this model to this subject of trans fat, and we do so holistically and in a calibrated manner, then we say, "First, let us look at it. Should we be monitoring something like trans fat?" The answer is yes, because it has certain adverse effects on health. Are we doing it? Yes, we are monitoring it. What is the international standard for trans fat consumption? Then we look at the World Health Organisation, and they say, no more than 1%. Then we look at our own situation, and we say, "Where are we?" And we are below that. We look at countries that have compulsory labelling. Canada and the United States, they are more than 2%. So we therefore have a certain sense of where we stand vis-a-vis the technical safety standards and also in comparison with countries that have gone on to compulsory labelling because they are in a different situation.

Does it mean that because we are less than 1%, therefore we could be complacent? The answer is no. So what must we do? We must do a combination of education and of pointing people in the right direction as to what they should be buying and consuming. Are we doing that? The answer is yes. So since 2004, this education on trans fat and working with the manufacturers to increase the

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stock and range of goods that is low in or contains no trans fat has been ongoing. So we will press on with this. If we are interested in a population that does not really go into all the details in everything that they buy, which I think it is the reality for most people, then we make life easy by having a symbol that they know that if I go this way, it will be safer than any other way. So this Healthier Choice Symbol is a layman's way to better health. I think we can do it this way and let people understand that this is the common man's way of achieving the same outcome - better health.

Then we come to labelling. Are we stopping here? Are we saying that there is no scope to consider labelling? The answer is we are considering it, besides the monitoring. As I explained, we will work over the next few months to see how we can do positive labelling. Why do we do this? In Singapore, just about everything we eat is imported, so we have to balance between wanting something that is safe, making sure that it is correct for our population's consumption, without unnecessarily either adding on to the cost of those things or limiting our own choices. So we have to think of ways in which we could tilt the playing field so that market forces work in our favour for our objectives. This is where if we can push in the direction of positive labelling, letting manufacturers know that we would allow them, subject to their fulfilling certain criteria, to advertise their products which contain lower or no trans fat, then that together with our efforts in the Healthier Choice Symbol programme would help to nudge our population towards consumption of the right choices of food. Over time, this is the way that accords with our market situation, our realities and still get us closer to the objectives of a healthy population.

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Mr Speaker: Mdm Halimah, you have one minute left.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: One more supplementary question, Sir. Would the Minister of State agree with me that compulsory labelling is also one way of empowering consumers to make informed choices and is one form of educating consumers as well? With compulsory labelling, at least the consumers know what they are consuming and that the items contain trans fat. They make an informed choice for their own health. Without compulsory labelling, a lot of the trans fat is hidden ---

Mr Speaker: Mdm Halimah, give time for the Minister to reply.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: Sir, my question to the Minister of State is that, for all these reasons that are stated for compulsory labelling, when will the Ministry move towards compulsory labelling?

Mr Heng Chee How: Sir, the Ministry is looking into this area of how to enable positive labelling. As I mentioned just now, we will continue to closely monitor the situation. We do not rule out any option but we will take those options and weigh the pros and cons and do the right thing at the right time.

3.00 pm

Mr Speaker: **** Order. End of Question time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No. 22, Written Answers to Question Nos. 15-16 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix*. Question Nos. 13-14 and 17 have been postponed to the next available sitting of Parliament .]

*Cols. 1189-1192.