Professor William Chen, the Michael Fam Chair Professor in Food Science and Technology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), said that beyond encouraging the use of lower-sodium ingredients, making healthier meals cheaper and easier for hawkers to prepare could also help.<\/p>\n
He suggested shared vegetable preparation facilities and cold-chain distribution to cut labour costs and reduce food waste.<\/p>\n
Food technology could also help develop ingredients that provide flavour without relying as heavily on conventional seasonings, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Singapore is already developing such innovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prof Chen pointed to research at NTU’s Food Science and Technology programme, where researchers have developed a fermentation method using oyster mushroom mycelium to turn okara \u2013 the pulp left over from soy milk and tofu production \u2013 into an ingredient rich in protein and umami flavour.<\/p>\n
The technology, conducted in collaboration with Japanese food manufacturer Ichimasa Kamaboko, remains at the proof-of-concept stage. Researchers have yet to establish whether it can be produced affordably on a commercial scale, with further studies planned on production costs, food safety and consumer acceptance.<\/p>\n
For now, the challenge lies in reconciling what consumers expect from an affordable meal with the nutritional quality of what ends up on their plates, Dr Shin said.<\/p>\n
She noted that consumers can easily assess portion sizes and taste, but nutritional quality is much harder to gauge.<\/p>\n
“If customers associate value mainly with quantity, increasing inexpensive staples relative to other ingredients could help operators maintain that perception. Depending on the recipe and quantities involved, this could contribute to a more calorific meal,” she said.<\/p>\n
She suggested that hawkers could incorporate affordable protein sources such as tofu, tempeh, lentils and beans into suitable dishes, or replace part of a rice portion with legumes to boost protein and fibre content.<\/p>\n
However, such changes would need to be tested against preparation costs, customer acceptance and operators’ profit margins.<\/p>\n
As efforts to make meals healthier gather pace, changing what Singaporeans choose to eat may take time.<\/p>\n
For instance, marketing analyst Elizabeth Teh rarely asks for less oil or salt when ordering her food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old said: “For most hawkers, I feel stressed asking for customisations because of the queue and the hurried pace of ordering.<\/p>\n
“I usually only do this for mala xiangguo (hot pot) because it tastes the same (if I ask for less oil) and makes it feel less sinful.”<\/p>\n
For others, however, making healthier choices has become a habit, without necessarily sacrificing the taste they enjoy.<\/p>\n
Mr Aaron Chan, a 34-year-old banker, said: “I always ask for less oil at hawker centres and so far, (my experience) has been good as I’m consuming fewer calories and the taste isn’t that different.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor William Chen, the Michael Fam Chair Professor in Food Science and Technology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,52100,48,278269,84,395,97513,16501,19581],"class_list":["post-952109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-ca","tag-calories","tag-canada","tag-hawker-food","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-rising-costs","tag-salt","tag-sodium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}