Sweet drinks still being sold on government premises
Many businesses on government premises have yet to clear their shelves of sweet drinks, with less than a month to go for the implementation of the Healthier Drinks Policy. The Health Promotion Board's (HPB) Whole-of-Government Healthier Drinks Policy, which takes effect from May 2018, states that all pre-packaged drinks sold on government premises should meet the Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) lower-in-sugar guidelines.
By default, freshly prepared coffee, tea and malted drinks should also have no added sugar.
The new policy also covers vending machines.
The more stringent guidelines follows a move by the Government to combat a rise in diabetes.
A check with several government-owned premises around Singapore, such as the National Library branches, hospitals and community centres, showed that sugared drinks are still being sold.
Cafe Galilee, a cafe chain operating in public libraries around Singapore, said that all five of its outlets will abide by the new policy by removing sugared soft drinks and several of its house-brand fresh juices off the menu.
They will replace these drinks with HPB-approved drinks and also intend to launch a healthier choice food menu after gaining approval from HPB.
SOFT APPROACH
If the government premises are found to be non-compliant, HPB will work with the relevant government agency to ensure compliance. There are no penalties involved at this point in time.
AN HPB SPOKESMAN, who says HPB will be doing spot checks from next month at government premises.
Mr Steve Chia, co-founder and director of Le Tach, which has about 200 vending machines on government premises, said the company was aware of the new policy and has taken measures to abide by it.
He said the traditional purpose of vending machines had been to offer consumers variety.
However, he is hopeful that sales will not be too affected with the changes.
"We foresee that the sales would gradually pick up if the consumers are given no other choices from the vending machine," he said.
Foodcourt chain Kopitiam, which has outlets in public hospitals such as Singapore General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said it will be serving all freshly prepared drinks with zero sugar and only drinks bearing HCS will be available for sale.
However, not all operators are waiting till the end of the month to change their menus.
A spokesman for Singapore Polytechnic (SP) told The Straits Times that from October last year, freshly prepared coffee and tea have been served without sugar by default at all of its food and beverage outlets.
"Since then, SP has noticed that sugar consumption has dropped by up to 30 per cent. We derived the figure based on the amount of sugar ordered by the food courts after the policy was implemented," said the spokesman.
An HPB spokesman said with the switch in drink offerings, the Government was seeking to cultivate a palate for less-sweet food and drinks among Singaporeans and to increase the demand for such options.
The spokesman also said that HPB will be doing spot checks from next month at government premises.
It will adopt a soft approach to ensuring that more get behind the fight against sugar.
"If the government premises are found to be non-compliant, HPB will work with the relevant government agency to ensure compliance. There are no penalties involved at this point in time," added the spokesman.
These new requirements come a year after the healthier catering policy was implemented for events organised by the public sector.
Under this policy, wholegrains and fresh fruit now feature more prominently on catered food menus. At the same time, caterers are obliged to serve coffee or tea with sugar on the side, and limit the number of deep-fried food options.
As of February, the Health Promotion Board's list of healthier caterers ran to nearly 100 firms.