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[Post-Event] NTUitive Webinar Series presents: The Future of Food – The Singapore Story

NTUitive Webinar Series presents: The Future of Food – The Singapore Story

Being a populous city-state with limited resources, Singapore imports about 90 percent of our food—one of the highest percentages of any country in the world. With COVID-19, the urgency of Singapore’s food security and the importance of ramping up our local food production are suddenly in the spotlight. Many wondered what do we already have in place and what more needs to be done to ensure there is sufficient food for us.

The Singapore government has been looking at growing food locally with the “30 by 30” plan announced in early 2019 – which is to produce 30 per cent of Singapore's nutritional needs locally by 2030. With COVID-19, that plan had to be accelerated. In April this year, Singapore Food Agency (SFA) launched a new $30m grant to speed up local production of eggs, vegetables and fish.

NTUitive had invited a panel of individuals well versed in the agri-food scene in Singapore to share their thoughts with us in our Webinar series on 4 Jun 2020.

The panel for the session consisted of:

• Mr Darren Tan (Head of Education and Community Outreach, ComCrop)
• Mr Shiva Susarla (Managing Director, RENERGii Asia)
• Mr Yip Hon Mun (Chief Strategy Office (Overseas)/CEO, NOROO Holdings Co Ltd), and
• Prof Patricia Conway (Visiting Professor, School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, NTU Singapore) as the moderator.

Our panel speakers spoke at length about the three food baskets of Singapore – namely diversifying its food import sources, growing food locally, as well as growing food overseas.

To find out more, check out the webinar here:

 

 

At NTU, we have exciting agri-food technologies that are available for licensing. For example:

1. Method to Produce Anti-Microbial Phenolics Extract for Food Applications:

Natural flavonoids from genetically modified yeast function as natural preservatives and keep food fresh at least eight times longer. They can also be used in multiple food products to prevent bacterial spoilage.

2. Ingested Nanocellulose Inhibits Hydrolysis of Triglycerides by Pancreatic Lipase, Reducing Bioavailability and Absorption of Co-ingested Fat:

Nano-sized cellulose fibres added to food can reduce fat absorption and could help in the global battle against obesity. This new nature-derived nanocellulose technology has the potential to improve digestion and absorption of excess fat from food without compromising quality and flavour.

3. Microbial Extraction of Chitin from Prawn Shells Using Sugars from Fruit Waste:

A green way to create chitin has been developed by using two forms of food waste – prawn shells and discarded fruit – and fermenting them. Chitin serves a wide variety of uses in the food industry, such as food thickeners and stabilisers, and as anti-microbial food packaging. This new method is not only cost-effective but also sustainable and helps to reduce overall waste.

See the full list below. For further details, contact us at [email protected].