Singapore food systems face major challenges in efforts to achieve food security.
Singapore imports 90% of its food, making it particularly vulnerable to global trends that impact supply and safety. Although Singapore has actively diversified its import sources to over 180 countries, the nation remains heavily reliant on key countries.1
Climate change, land scarcity, disease outbreaks and growing complexity of food systems directly impact Singapore’s food security. This challenge is especially vital as shortages and inflation trigger a rise in food protectionism as countries implement export bans, taxes and restrictions to protect domestic supply.
To combat external disruptions, growing locally remains a critical pillar of Singapore’s food security strategy, as it could help with enhancing supply resilience.
Science and technology serve as critical enablers for Singapore’s food security ambitions. As a small country with limited land and resources, local food production faces inherent challenges in productivity and cost competitiveness, compounded by a high operating‑cost environment and a nascent agri‑food sector.
To overcome these structural constraints and strengthen industry competitiveness, Singapore must harness science and technology to develop innovative, high‑impact solutions that enhance productivity and resilience.
To drive research and development (R&D) in the agri-food sector, efforts concentrated on building local capabilities and establishing the foundation for future innovation across key areas. The developments in R&D aimed to strengthen Singapore’s food security while establishing Singapore as an agri-food innovation hub.
Turning challenges into advantages
To establish greater food resilience in Singapore, driving science-backed capabilities across aquaculture, urban agriculture and future foods is essential. To achieve this, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) jointly developed the Singapore Food R&D (SFR) Programme in 2019 under the Research Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 framework.
Under RIE2020, SFR focused on three interlinked themes: sustainable urban food production; future foods; and food safety science and innovation and supported over 60 research projects.
Sustainable urban food production focused on improving crop growth and yields for agriculture, advancing genetics, disease and health for aquaculture. As an example, National University of Singapore (NUS) developed novel choy sum and kale varieties that achieved up to 20% higher yields compared with conventional cultivars, addressing productivity limitations faced by indoor and vertical farms.
On the aquaculture front, a vaccine developed by A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs demonstrated around 75% efficacy (in experimental settings) against Scale Drop Disease Virus (SDDV), a pathogen endemic in Southeast Asia that causes significant losses in Asian seabass farming, a key tropical marine fish species in the region.
Future foods aimed to develop capabilities in alternative protein production by strengthening research alignment with industry and developing shared infrastructure to support industry translation. One such example is Nanyang Polytechnic – Umami Bioworks collaboration – where the world’s first cultivated unagi and grouper cell lines were developed, together with a plant-based growth serum designed to reduce animal inputs and support scalable, sustainable seafood production.
In addition, an automated protein profiling platform was developed by the Singapore Institute of Technology and A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute significantly reduced protein functionality testing time (i.e. from one to two months to 7 days).
Food safety science and innovation focused on strengthening capabilities in toxicity and allergenicity assessment for alternative proteins, as well as developing insights into consumer behaviour and acceptance.
A web-based bioinformatics screening tool, AllerCatPro, was developed to predict the allergenic potential of proteins, achieving close to 100% accuracy for fish allergens, through collaboration between A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute and A*STAR Singapore Immunology Network, James Cook University and Umami Bioworks.
The transition to RIE2025
For RIE2025, it would adopt a more targeted approach in Singapore’s food innovation journey – where it would build on earlier capabilities built through RIE2020 (e.g. flagship projects) and sharpen the focus on improving productivity and reducing costs for local production.
These are two critical factors underpinning the long‑term viability of Singapore’s food production capabilities to ensure that R&D outcomes can be effectively translated and scaled across the sector.
Four key domains supported through RIE2025
RIE2025 focuses on four key R&D domains:
- Aquaculture R&D is focused on farm productivity and disease resilience through developing genetically superior fry and fingerlings, alongside cost‑effective feed and vaccines to improve fish health and quality.
- Agriculture R&D aimed to harness cutting-edge technology and efficient resource use to enable farms to enhance production and increase yields.
- Future foods R&D prioritised on advancing alternative protein production, with emphasis on cost reduction, process optimisation and enhanced taste and nutrition to drive consumer acceptance.
- Food safety R&D focused on developing non‑animal New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for toxicological evaluation, aligning with global shifts towards ethical, scalable and human‑relevant food safety science.
Flagship research projects supported under RIE2025
In addition, two flagship research programmes – Seed Innovation Hub (SIH) and AquaPolis – were supported under RIE2025:
- SIH builds on a project initiated in RIE2020 SFR, to deliver high-quality seeds for tropical and controlled environments across leafy, fruited and speciality greens, with strong industry collaboration.
- AquaPolis aims to boost the production of high-quality Asian seabass via the integration of breeding, health and nutrition R&D – delivering more resistant fingerlings and better disease and feeding strategies.
Continuation of RIE2020 projects with translational potential
Several industry relevant RIE2020 projects have also secured follow-on funding under RIE2025, reflecting their strong translational potential and impact on Singapore’s agri‑food innovation:
- A project developing encapsulated fish feeds in the first phase advanced to pilot-scale trials with industry collaborators and other commercial farms to facilitate translation.
- A project which developed simultaneous nitrification-denitrification (SND) microbial consortium and bioreactor design for complete nitrogen removal in the first phase, would be validating their technology in collaboration with fish farms in the second phase.
What’s next for Singapore’s food system?
Singapore’s food R&D efforts will remain focused on strengthening local capabilities and expanding partnerships with researchers and industry stakeholders in Singapore and overseas – supporting food security and the development of a vibrant agri-food ecosystem through translating research into real‑world impact.
References
- AZ, Li.; et al. Safeguarding sustenance: Singapore’s strategic commitment to enhancing food security through advancing food research and innovation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2025 Sep 18;380(1935):20240164.