SFA COMMITS $42 MILLION TO DRIVE BREAKTHROUGHS IN FUTURE FOODS AND FOOD SAFETY

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The Singapore Food Story (SFS) R&D Programme aims to accelerate food innovation in urban agriculture, aquaculture, future foods and food safety. Under the second phase of the SFS R&D Programme, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has awarded $42 million to 11 Future Foods and Food Safety-related projects.

2 The projects were selected through two grant calls:

Second Future Foods Grant Call: Focuses on seeking innovative solutions to strengthen nutrition and functionality of alternative proteins products;
Food Safety Grant Call: Supports the development of non-animal New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for toxicological evaluation of food innovations.

3 Four projects were awarded under the Second Future Foods Grant Call and six under the Food Safety Grant Call. The details of the projects are listed in the Annex.

4 Additional funding has also been awarded to the Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability (PreFerS) to translate research outputs into market ready solutions. PreFerS was established in 2024 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). This project aims to develop efficient and sustainable production of high-value ingredients like healthy lipids, functional proteins.

5 A/Prof. Du Juan, Associate Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology, one of the awardees under the Second Future Foods Grant said “The NutriBoost project exemplifies our commitment to real-world impact by leveraging novel food processing, flavour science and AI, to enhance the nutrition, texture, and taste of sustainable alternative proteins.” Her research proposal focuses on developing an AI-powered integrated food processing platform for alternative protein products with enhanced taste, functionality and nutrition.

6 Another research team, the NextGen Toxicokinetic team, comprising researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and NUS, has received the Food Safety Grant for their work in developing Singapore’s first database of small molecule additives. This database will help evaluate the safety of novel foods more quickly and affordably. Prof. Tan Soo Yong, Lead Principal Investigator of the project, said: “By leveraging advanced tools, we aim to set new standards in non-animal food safety. The NextGen platform will help companies worldwide evaluate novel food components efficiently and sustainably.”

7 Dr. Ngin Hoon Tong, Senior Director of the Science and Technology Division of SFA, said: “As we continue to navigate an increasingly complex global food landscape, sustained R&D investment in novel foods remained an important strategy. 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.”

8 For more information on the SFS R&D Programme, please refer to https://www.sfa.gov.sg/recognition-programmes-grants/grants/singapore-food-story-rd-grant-call.

Issued by the Singapore Food Agency

4 November 2025

Annex

Future Foods Grant

S/N	Proposal Title	Team
1	DIGEST: Developing Innovative Gastrointestinal Efficiency and Smart Technologies	National University of Singapore, Life3 Biotech Pte Ltd, Angel Yeast Singapore Pte Ltd, Happy Petto Pte Ltd, Vital Meat SAS, SGProtein Pte Ltd, Nurasa Pte Ltd
2	Alternative Lipids: Precision fermentation-based production of Omega-3 PUFA-enriched phospholipids for Alternative Proteins	A*STAR, Singapore Polytechnic, National University of Singapore
3	Enhancing the Flavour, Nutritional and Functional Properties of Microalgae Biomass/Proteins for Scaled-Up Food Applications	National University of Singapore, Life3 Biotech Pte Ltd, KH Roberts Pte Ltd, Allswell Trading Pte Ltd, MANE SEA Pte Ltd
4	Integrated Processing for Enhanced Techno-functional Properties and Nutritional Value of Alternative Protein (NutriBoost)	Singapore Institute of Technology, A*STAR, Mycrocell Pte Ltd

Food Safety Grant

S/N	Proposal title	Team
1	A Robust Human Liver-Heart Microphysiological System for Safety Assessment of Cultivated Cells	National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Joe's Future Food Pte. Ltd, University of Canterbury, Meatiply Pte Ltd, AIM Biotech, MegaRobo Technologies (Singapore) Pte. Ltd
2	Evaluating the Allergenicity and Immunotoxicity of Precision Fermentation Proteins by Investigating Covalent Modifications and Advancing NAMs for Risk Assessment	National University of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore Food Agency, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
3	NextGen toxicokinetic and safety platform for the evaluation of small-molecule additives in cultivated meat	National University of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore Food Agency, TissUse, United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA), Meatable, Vireo Advisors, Asia-Pacific Society for Cellular Agriculture
4	Modular Liver-Gut Platform for Advanced Risk Detection (Li-GuARD) liver-gut Organ-on-Chip (OoC) platform to assess food safety	Temasek Polytechnic, Queensland University of Technology, Asia-Pacific Society for Cellular Agriculture, Meatiply Pte Ltd, Winovus Pte Ltd, A*STAR
5	DiPLOTOX: Developing an integrated human iPSC-derived Liver Organoid and gut-on-a-chip platform for safety assessment of food TOXicants	A*STAR, National University of Singapore

Developmental neurotoxicity assessment platform for evaluation of food safety risks posed by contaminants from cell-based and fermented derived foods

A*STAR, National University of Singapore, Umami Bioworks, Meatiply Pte Ltd, Sciex, ID Labs, AIM Biotech

CREATE Programme

S/N	Proposal title	Team
1	Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability (PreFerS)	Illinois Advanced Research Center at Singapore Ltd, National University of Singapore, Singapore Institute of Technology

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