Singapore Proposes Changes to Food Regulations, Involving New Ingredients in Infant Formula and the Expanded Use Scope of Food Additives

Singapore proposes to allow sodium salt of 3'-sialyllactose, sodium salt of 6'-sialyllactose, and 3-fucosyllactose to be added to infant formula. Singapore also proposes to extend the use scope of sucralose, a permitted sweetening agent, to soybean-based beverages.

On January 31, 2024, Singapore Food Agency (SFA) issued Draft Food (Amendment) Regulations 2024. Major revisions involve extending the use scope of permitted food additives, and allowing the use of new ingredients in infant formula, which is slated to come into effect in Q2 2024. Any feedback can be submitted to toh_kian_han@sfa.gov.sg before March 31, 2024.

Major Revisions

To Allow New Ingredients in Infant Formula

Under the proposed changes, SFA aims to permit the addition of 3 new ingredients to infant formula and increase the maximum allowable levels of 2 ingredients. The details are as follows:

Ingredients	Food types	Maximum use levels	Remarks
Sodium salt of 3'-sialyllactose	Infant formula for infants of or below 6 months of age	20 mg/100 ml	New ingredients
Sodium salt of 3'-sialyllactose	Infant formula for infants above 6 but not more than 12 months of age	15 mg/100 ml
Sodium salt of 6'-sialyllactose	Infant formula for infants of or below 6 months of age	40 mg/100 ml
Sodium salt of 6'-sialyllactose	Infant formula for infants above 6 but not more than 12 months of age	30 mg/100 ml
3-fucosyllactose (3-FL)	Infant formula	44 mg/100 ml
2'-fucosyllactose (2'-FL)	Infant formula	120 mg/100 ml → 240 mg/100 ml	Revised ingredients
Lactose-N-tetraose (LNT)	Infant formula for infants above 6 but not more than 12 months of age	60 mg/100 ml → 80 mg/100 ml.	Revised ingredients

To Extend the Use of Permitted Food Additives

The SFA proposes expanding the use scope of permitted food additives in the following ways:

The use of L-theanine will be extended to salt substitutes, with a maximum permitted level of 15,000 ppm.
The use of sucralose, a permitted sweetening agent, will be extended to soybean-based beverages, with a maximum permitted level of 400 ppm.

To Revise the Permitted Forms of Steviol Glycosides

To align with Codex standards, SFA proposes replacing the current forms of steviol glycosides with the following four types:

steviol glycosides from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (steviol glycosides from Stevia);
steviol glycosides from fermentation;
enzymatically produced steviol glycosides (including steviol glycosides produced using the enzyme uridine triphosphate (UTP)-glucose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (EC 2.7.7.9) from the source organism Bifidobacterium bifidum;
glucosylated steviol glycosides;