Good evening. I am happy to be here at the AVA’s Food Safety Awards Night.

2 The key mission of AVA is to ensure the adequate supply of food at affordable prices that are safe for public consumption. The three key words are: adequate, affordable and safe.

3 With the support and cooperation of our food industry, AVA has been able to fulfil this important mission.

4 Over the years, AVA has established an integrated food safety system to ensure that our food supply complies with the highest of international standards. Stringent inspection and accreditation of farms, abattoirs and food-processing factories have helped reduce food safety risk to the minimum.

5 AVA has done such a professional job that today, many of us in Singapore take food safety for granted. Even though we do not produce much food in Singapore, our people go about our daily lives not having to worry much about the availability of safe food.

6 Such a rigorous and comprehensive system gives us peace of mind, even during periods of upsurge of food borne diseases in our region.

7 However, we cannot afford to be complacent. And we are not. The recent emergence of food-related diseases closer to home are stark reminders that our task of ensuring safe supply of food will only get more challenging in future.

8 Remember, when Nipah virus broke out in Malaysia in 1999, fresh pork was suddenly in short supply.

9 Remember also, when Bird Flu reached Kelantan last year, many of our households were out of eggs. Many coffee shops also had to stop offering “half-boiled” eggs for breakfast.

10 Bird Flu is now endemic in our region. We can also expect to see more incidences of food borne diseases – not just Bird Flu, but also Nipah, Mad Cow, and Foot and Mouth diseases in our region. What this means is that our food supply could be disrupted more often and more severely from now on, if we do not find new and effective way of managing it, in response to changes out there.

11 This evening, I am happy to share with you that AVA, building on its knowledge and experience accumulated over the years, has embarked on a more responsive approach in managing the risk we face in food supply safety.

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Firstly, Implementing the Zonal Approach in Managing Supply Disruption

12 In the past, whenever there is a disease outbreak in a country that export food to Singapore, we would impose a complete ban on food imports from the affected country. The advantage of this prudent approach is that it is very much a “zero-risk” approach. However, we could end up with “zero food” under a “zero-risk” approach, if the disease outbreak hits most, if not all our food source countries.

13 To prevent this from happening as much as possible, AVA has decided to move from the current “Country” approach towards a “zonal” approach by establishing control measures while allowing imports under certain conditions.

14 One good example of this Zonal approach is the establishment of Johore and Malacca as disease-free zones when Bird Flu broke out in Kelantan. AVA worked with Malaysia’s Department of Veterinary Services to ensure that bio-security and movements control measures were enforced for farms in these zones, allowing for poultry imports to resume quickly.

15 We are able to embark on such a zonal approach because of AVA’s advanced diagnostic capabilities in foodborne diseases. With its experienced staff and advanced laboratories, AVA is now capable of detecting foodborne hazards, and infectious pathogens quickly and accurately. This has enabled AVA to prevent sudden price hikes by keeping open our major sources of supply from disease-free zones, while keeping food safety risks to a very low and acceptable level.

Secondly, Diversifying Supply Sources

16 Besides moving away from “Zero Risk”, we also need to avoid being caught in a situation of “Zero-Source”. Hence, our best defence against supply disruptions is to keep diversifying our sources of food supply, so that we are not overly dependent on only a few sources for our key food items.

17 Our industry players have a key role to play here. We count on you to actively seek out new sources of supply, invest in food supply establishments overseas, and promote new food items.

Thirdly, Widening Consumer Choices

18 Consumers too have a major part to play in enhancing food supply safety and stability. You can widen consumer choices. The more varied our consumers’ preferences and habits are, the more resilient our food supply is. Hence, more needs to be done to educate and inform consumers of the availability of a wider range of food alternatives. This is so that we will not end up becoming overly-reliant on any particular food item.

19 For example, frozen meats have already become viable alternatives to their fresh or chilled counterparts. In most cases, they are also cheaper. Ten years ago, 95% of pork supply were fresh or chilled pork. Only 5% were frozen pork. Today, frozen pork accounts for 52% of total supply of pork. The average import price of frozen pork is about 25% cheaper than chilled pork. As even more consumers adapt and adjust their preferences to accept frozen foods more readily, the supply of pork or chicken will not only become even more diversified, but safer too since we can better prevent importation of food borne diseases with frozen meats than with fresh meats.

20 Likewise, if powdered or liquid eggs are more readily accepted as alternatives to table shell eggs, the resilience of our egg supply would increase manifold. The AVA and the industry must therefore collaborate further to promote the use of viable alternatives, and educate our consumers on the availability of choices.

21 I would like to end by saying again that the efforts of AVA alone will not be sufficient to keep our food safe. A truly resilient supply of safe food – adequate, affordable and safe – can only come about with a strong and effective 3P partnership. The public, private and people sectors all have important parts to play to bring this about and sustain it.

22 The Food Safety Awards we are presenting tonight are important, and will become even more important as we embark on the new approach of risk management. Besides serving as a constant reminder that food safety remains a key priority, the Awards encourage and recognise the efforts of the industry in ensuring food safety, even as the industry diversifies the sources of supply.

23 Tonight, I am pleased to introduce two new food safety award categories. These are for companies that have managed to sustain excellence in food hygiene, sanitation and processing for five and ten consecutive years.

24 I congratulate all the winners tonight. As we enjoy the delicious food over the dinner, let us remind ourselves that our safe food did not happen by chance, but by the design and hard work of many parties. Let us continue to work together to make our food supply even more adequate, more affordable and safer for the benefits of our consumers out there. Thank you and have an enjoyable evening.

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