The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has awarded $42 million to 11 future food and food safety-related projects as part of the Singapore Food Story (SFS) R&D Programme.
The projects were selected through two grant calls:
Second Future Foods
This grant call seeks innovative solutions to strengthen the nutrition and functionality of alternative protein products. Four projects have been awarded:
- DIGEST: Developing Innovative Gastrointestinal Efficiency and Smart Technologies.
- Alternative Lipids: Precision fermentation-based production of Omega-3 PUFA-enriched phospholipids for alternative proteins.
- Enhancing the flavour, nutritional and functional properties of microalgae biomass/proteins for scaled-up food applications.
- Integrated processing to enhance the techno-functional properties and nutritional value of alternative proteins (NutriBoost).
Food Safety
This grant call supports the development of non-animal New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for the toxicological evaluation of food innovations. Six projects have been awarded:
- A robust human liver-heart microphysiological system for the safety assessment of cultivated cells.
- Evaluating the allergenicity and immunotoxicity of precision fermentation proteins by investigating covalent modifications and advancing NAMs for risk assessment.
- NextGen toxicokinetic and safety platform for the evaluation of small-molecule additives in cultivated meat.
- Modular Liver-Gut Platform for Advanced Risk Detection (Li-GuARD) liver-gut Organ-on-Chip (OoC) platform to assess food safety.
- DiPLOTOX: Developing an integrated human iPSC-derived liver organoid and gut-on-a-chip platform for the safety assessment of food TOXicants.
- Developmental neurotoxicity assessment platform for the evaluation of food safety risks posed by contaminants from cell-based and fermentation-derived foods.
“Next wave of breakthrough technologies”
Additional funding has also been awarded to the Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability (PreFerS) to translate research outputs into market-ready solutions. The project aims to efficiently and sustainably produce high-value ingredients such as healthy lipids and functional proteins.
PreFerS was established last year by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), with support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE).
“As we continue to navigate an increasingly complex global food landscape, sustained R&D investment in novel foods remains an important strategy,” said Dr. Ngin Hoon Tong, Senior Director of the Science and Technology Division of SFA. “These awarded projects represent the next wave of breakthrough technologies that will enhance our food resilience and position Singapore as a leader in sustainable food innovation.”
