“NOT WINNING THE BATTLE ON LIFESTYLES”
Highlighting the results, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Wednesday: “As of now, we are not winning the battle on lifestyles.”
“Chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and high blood cholesterol are consequences of our lifestyles, especially eating habits. We are what we eat. Food can be medicine if we eat well but it can be poison if we do not,” said Mr Ong during the launch of Project RESET, which looks at Singapore’s population’s metabolism, heart, and liver health as well as lifestyle behaviour.
As the majority of sodium intake comes from eating out, a sodium reduction strategy was launched last year to encourage suppliers for salt and sauces to replace regular salt with lower-sodium alternatives, such as potassium-enriched salt, said Mr Ong.
“The results so far have been quite encouraging. To date, three major suppliers, accounting for close to half of the food and beverage salt market share are now supplying lower-sodium salt,” he said.
More than 350 hawkers, coffeeshop and food court stalls around the country, as well as close to 150 caterers are already using lower-sodium ingredients.
MOH is also considering other measures to reduce sodium content in food through regulatory measures, and has studied how other countries have done so, said Mr Ong.
Citing the example of Chile, he said the South American country has implemented food labelling rules similar to Singapore’s Nutri-Grade label.
Hence, products exceeding the stipulated sodium threshold must have a “higher in sodium” warning label, said Mr Ong.
“This is very similar to what we did for sugar but they did it for salt.”
Finland regulates sodium limits for selected packaged food items that are the main contributors of sodium in their day-to-day diet.
“Both measures have worked. They have spurred industry reformulation and reduced their populations’ sodium intake. We will draw lessons from these examples to consider what would be suitable to implement in our local context,” the Health Minister said.
In the meantime, authorities will embark on a “no regrets move” to call on the industry to reduce the use of sodium in all dishes, he added.
HPB’s market study has shown that the sodium content of dishes in Singapore has risen by an average of 20 per cent between 2010 and 2023,
As such, HPB will launch a campaign to encourage industry and F&B operators to pledge to reset sodium levels and roll back sodium content in their dishes to the levels in 2010 and “cook like how you used to cook in 2010”.
On MOH and HPB’s bigger push to change Singapore’s dietary habits, Mr Ong said: “I want to assure everyone that we will do so without making our food bland and uninteresting and without depriving people of their favourite past time of eating or undermining the diversity and colour of the Singapore food scene.”
On Wednesday, MOH and HPB also encouraged Singapore residents to use the Healthier Choice symbol to identify ingredients and food products with at least 25 per cent sodium reduction.
“When cooking, herbs, spices and umami ingredients can be used to add flavour to food, without too much salt or seasonings,” they said.
“When eating out, diners are advised to look out for stores with the Healthier Choice identifier, and ask for less gravy, sauces or soup, as these tend to be high in sodium.”