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Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong
Non-Constituency MP
Question No. 607
To ask the Minister for Health (a) whether HPB follows the recommendation of the World Health Organisation that a person should reduce the consumption of added sugars to less than 5 per cent of the normal daily energy intake, at around 22g of added sugars a day; and (b) if so, whether this is recommended to institutions and in public programmes.
Written Reply
1 The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation is for adults and children to reduce daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. This is consistent with the policy position adopted by the Health Promotion Board.
2 The 5% level is what WHO refers to as a “conditional recommendation”. WHO has explained that a conditional recommendation is one “where the desirable effects of adhering to the recommendation probably outweigh the undesirable effects but these trade-offs need to be clarified; therefore, stakeholder dialogue and consultations are needed before the recommendation is implemented as policy.”