NTU President speech at the Official Launch of the Future Ready Food Safety Hub

Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 9.05am

Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment,

Ms Chan Lai Fung, Chairman, A*STAR

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, SFA

Distinguished guests, NTU colleagues

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you to Nanyang Technological University and to the inaugural Food Science and Technology Global 2021 conference. This not only a very important event, but also for NTU, to have established a tripartite collaboration with the Singapore Food Agency and A*STAR. I would also like to thank all our colleagues and 700 of the attendees participating from all around the world to attend this conference, to share research discoveries, ideas, and scientific findings. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Minister Grace Fu and Mr Chan, Chairman of A*STAR, Mr Lim, Chairman, SFA, and CEO of A*STAR, Mr Frederick Chew, for joining us this morning.

This is a very timely event not just for Singapore, but also for many countries.

Food security is a national priority around the world, but it is timely because of two factors: the global pandemic has seriously disrupted supply chains around the world; and secondly, there is a growing realisation of the severe impact of climate change. These two factors combined, make it even more timely than just a few more years ago.

There are a few factors that make it even more compelling for Singapore. 90 per cent of Singapore’s food supply is imported. It can potentially be vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, so there is a realisation to emphasise increases in domestic food production, diversity of food sources, ensuring affordability, as well as nutritional standards.

In 2019, Singapore announced a very ambitious goal —"30 by 30" - to produce 30 per cent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030, using less than 1 per cent of its land area.

It is underpinned by a visionary strategy: tech innovation will play an important part in this. In a modern urban setting with modern urban farming, where we seek the production of alternative proteins, new ways of upcycling food waste, along with consumer education. And NTU is very well-positioned to be a key partner in achieving these national goals and priorities, and contributing new knowledge, new discoveries, and new technologies to the global community.

NTU researchers have a very strong track record in food technology production, using cost-effective means, novel ways for foods to be produced, including alternative protein sources, sustainability ways to manage food waste, biodegradable packaging, using technologies from material science engineering, for example.

The work of our colleagues will help Singapore achieve a circular economy for food through research, education, and innovation, along with our partners across Singapore and around the world.

Industry partnership is also key to this. In 2019, NTU established a joint lab with F&N on NTU’s Smart Campus. Since 2015, NTU has had a very productive and mutually beneficial partnership with the Netherlands’ Wageningen University & Research, and we are delighted that our special guest speaker at this conference will be Dr Wieger Waselink, from Wageningen.

Today, we are pleased to sign the agreement for what we call FRESH, Future Ready Food Safety Hub. It is a tripartite collaboration involving NTU, the Singapore Food Agency and A*STAR. The goal is to help Singapore achieve the ‘30 by 30’ goal through this collective effort.

At NTU, this is hosted by the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, co-led by Dr. Ben Smith from A*STAR, who is also an Adjunct Faculty appointment at NTU and by Professor William Chen.

This programme, FRESH, is an integral part, and a key pillar of our NTU 2025 vision, which we just rolled out earlier this year in January. The goal would be to accelerate high-impact research that will benefit industry and society.

With that, I would like to thank all our guests to take time to join us to join us this morning – I would like to particularly thank NTU faculty and staff, who have worked very hard along with our colleagues from SFA and A*STAR to put this together. I would like to also thank members of leadership team for their hard work in making this happen. On behalf of NTU, I would like to thank A*STAR, NTU, and the 30 or so speakers for joining us from all corners of the world.

Thank you very much.