SINGAPORE: Nutrigrade labeling of freshly prepared beverages will be done in a ‘practical’ way, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) said on Tuesday (16 August).
In a letter to The Straits Times’ Forum page, MOH Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Chow Wai Leng and HPB Director of Policy and Strategy Development Terence Ng noted concerns from operators.
These concerns came after Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said last week that by the end of 2023, food and beverage outlets will be required to include nutrition labels on their menus indicating drinks with higher levels of sugar and saturated fat. It happened after
This new requirement also applies to freshly brewed drinks, freshly squeezed juices and bubble tea in coffee shops.
“Like other jurisdictions that have introduced mandatory labeling, we will consider applying the measures only to large establishments initially, and consider exempting smaller establishments that serve freshly prepared beverages. We do,” said Dr. Chow and Mr. Ng.
They added that not all establishments are required to use laboratory analysis to determine the sugar and saturated fat content of their beverages.
“It is acceptable to grade beverages by extrapolating sugar and saturated fat content from the amount of individual ingredients added to the beverage,” the letter read.
Dr. Chow and Mr. Ng said details of the measures will be announced later.
