Singapore Suspends National Meal Program After SOTA Students Suffer Food Poisoning

The Food Resilience Preparedness Programme, designed for emergencies, is on hold as authorities investigate illnesses linked to ready-to-eat meals.

Twenty students at Singapore's School of the Arts (SOTA) reported symptoms of diarrhoea, nausea, and vomiting after consuming ready-to-eat meals distributed during a national preparedness exercise.
The meals were part of the Food Resilience Preparedness Programme, which aimed to provide emergency-ready meals to over 100,000 students and teachers from more than 90 schools.
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Ministry of Education (MOE), and other agencies have temporarily paused the program while investigations into the food poisoning cases are ongoing.
The ready-to-eat meals, developed by food caterer SATS, were designed to be shelf-stable for up to eight months and consumed at room temperature without refrigeration.
Plans to distribute the meals to seniors at Active Ageing Centres, involving over 8,000 participants, are also on hold pending the outcome of the investigation.