According to AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore) on March 30, the Food (Amendment) Regulations will be implemented officially since April 1, 2017. The newly amended regulations contain:

1. Bring new food additives and ingredients to food regulations; moreover, purposes of existing food additives are supplemented, including health claim of barely β-glucan. All those changes comply with international conventions and trade promotion measures.

2. To better protect health of consumers, the MRL of lead in infant formula has been reduced to 0.01ppm, and MRL of inorganic arsenic in white rice to 0.2ppm;

3. Other changes contain no use of international MRL of 11 pesticides; allowing to mark net wet of prepackaged rice products by g or kg (if applicable); meanwhile revising quality standards of sesames oil and sunflower seed oil;

4. The Food (Amendment) Regulations 2017 can be downloaded from: http://www.ava.gov.sg/legislation;

5. From April 1, 2017, all food additives, ingredients and health claim used by all traders in imported, manufactured and sold in Singapore must comply with new provisions of the food regulation. AVA also reminded the industry of guarantying conforming foods sold after April 1, 2017.