Household Ingredients Compared › Baking Powder and Soda (Singapore)

Baking powder and soda: what's actually in it?

Baking soda and baking powder look alike and do opposite jobs in different ways. Baking soda is one chemical — sodium bicarbonate — and it needs an acid in the batter (buttermilk, vinegar, lemon, cocoa) to make gas. Baking powder is a complete system in one tub: sodium bicarbonate plus an acid (or two) plus a starch to keep them apart until they get wet. 'Double acting' means it gives off gas twice — once when wet, once when heated. Cream of tartar is the acid half of the system on its own, sold separately for recipes that build their own powder. The ingredient list is the whole story here: a powder that lists wheat flour as its first ingredient is a different product from one that lists cornstarch.

This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick. It shows the ingredient list as printed, with the country of manufacture as printed, and flags where a list could not be verified.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Baking soda is one ingredient. Bake King Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate, and FairPrice lists its origin as Singapore. Nothing else is in the tub.
Baking powder is a system, not a single chemical. RedMan Baking Powder lists wheat flour, sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate and monocalcium phosphate — the flour is the carrier, the pyrophosphate and monocalcium phosphate are the acids.
The carrier matters. RedMan's powder is carried on wheat flour (allergen: wheat gluten). Most other baking powders use cornstarch. If you bake gluten-free, the carrier is the first thing to check, not the brand.
Most of this shelf could not be panelled. Bake King, Bob's Red Mill, Rumford, Arm & Hammer, Bakerdream and Green Earth powders and sodas are all listed at FairPrice, but no verbatim ingredient section was retrieved for any of them in this pass. They are in seen-but-not-verified, not panelled on textbook definitions.

At a glance

Product	Pack size (as printed)	Type	First ingredient	Country of manufacture (as printed)
RedMan Baking Powder	not stated	Baking powder	Wheat flour	Singapore
Bake King Baking Soda (Bicarbonate of Soda)	not stated	Baking soda	Sodium bicarbonate	Singapore

Panelled with verbatim lists: 2 products. Seen-but-not-verified: see the list below. No prices are shown: they change weekly and would go stale. This site compares ingredients only.

RedMan Baking Powder

Pack size: not stated · Made in: Singapore (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice Singapore ingredient section): Wheat Flour, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophsphante [sic], Monocalcium Phosphate.

FairPrice's own spelling is 'Sodium Acid Pyrophsphante' — a typo for sodium acid pyrophosphate, quoted here exactly as printed. Wheat flour is first, so this powder is carried on flour, not starch; FairPrice flags the allergen as 'Contains Wheat Gluten'. The FairPrice description explains the difference itself: baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate and an acid, so it only needs liquid to activate, while baking soda is only sodium bicarbonate and needs an acid. Origin: Singapore; RedMan is Phoon Huat's house brand, made in Singapore. Allergen: wheat gluten Origin: Singapore

Bake King Baking Soda (Bicarbonate of Soda) — brand description, not a retrieved ingredient section

Pack size: not stated · Made in: Singapore (as printed)

Ingredients (per Bake King product description): Sodium bicarbonate.

One ingredient. Flag: the FairPrice page for this product gives a country/place of origin (Singapore) and Halal status but no INGREDIENTS section was retrieved, so this panel rests on Bake King's own description ('Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate') rather than a retrieved ingredient section. The SG pack still needs a photo to close this properly. FairPrice's usage notes add that it can be used in scones, doughnuts and biscuits, and as a household cleaning agent. Origin: Singapore Halal

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Bake King Baking Powder (70 g / 200 g / 500 g / 1 kg / 3 kg) — listed at FairPrice, Halal; no FairPrice ingredient section retrieved. Bake King's site describes baking powder generically (sodium bicarbonate plus an acid such as cream of tartar plus a moisture absorber like cornstarch), but that is a definition, not this product's list.
Bake King Baking Powder — Double Acting — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved.
Bake King Cream Of Tartar (80 g) — listed at FairPrice, Halal; no ingredient section retrieved. Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate by definition, but this page does not panel a definition as a list.
Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder (Gluten-Free) — listed at FairPrice; no standalone ingredient section retrieved. (A FairPrice pancake-mix page lists a baking powder inside a mix as cornstarch, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate — that is the mix's component, not this tub's list.)
Bob's Red Mill Premium Quality Baking Soda / Baking Soda — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved.
Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda — listed at FairPrice in several formats (pouch, refillable shaker); no ingredient section retrieved.
Rumford Baking Powder (113 g) — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved.
Bakerdream Double Acting Baking Powder and Food Grade Baking Soda — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved.
RedMan Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) 5 kg — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved (the panelled RedMan list above is the baking powder, not this soda).
Green Earth Baking Soda — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved.
Xiao Chou Wa Food Grade Alkali — listed at FairPrice; no ingredient section retrieved. Food-grade alkali for noodles is usually sodium carbonate, but that is not verified for this product.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the sortable table are as sold, per 100 g (or per 100 ml for liquids, where the source gives per-100 ml). Click a column header to sort low to high; click again for high to low. Rows marked "not stated" always sort last — a missing figure is not zero. Per-serving-only figures are in a separate table below and are never sorted against per-100 g figures.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: Singapore packs list total sugars, not added sugars. A total-sugars figure is never labelled here as "added sugar". Where a source states an added-sugars figure separately, it is noted. The ingredient list remains the evidence for added sugar versus naturally occurring sugars.

Open Food Facts is a community database and is flagged as secondary where used: the pack and the retailer nutrition section take precedence if they disagree. Figures marked "not stated" were not in the source retrieved; they are not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours. No Nutri-Grade is quoted or assigned on any page in this batch — no official Nutri-Grade was found printed on any of these products, and these are not drinks in the Nutri-Grade sense except where a drink is involved (none here).

No per-100 g nutrition panel was verified for any product on this page in this pass, and no per-serving panel was verified either. That is a gap, not a zero: these products are used in small quantities, but their panels still need retrieving from SG packs or retailer nutrition sections before publish. No per-100 g or per-serving nutrition panel was verified for either panelled product in this pass. That is a gap, not a zero — but it is a small one in practice, because baking powder and soda are used by the teaspoon. The FairPrice RedMan Baking Powder page carries a 'NUTRITIONAL DATA' heading with no values retrieved, so it is not tabled.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): no per-100 g nutrition panel was verified in this pass for RedMan Baking Powder, Bake King Baking Soda (Bicarbonate of Soda). Their ingredient panels are unchanged; their nutrition figures are not estimated here.

How to read a baking powder and soda label — the jargon, in plain English

Sodium bicarbonate (E500): Baking soda / bicarbonate of soda. One chemical, NaHCO3. It releases carbon dioxide when it meets an acid and moisture, or heat.
Double acting: A baking powder that releases gas twice: once when it gets wet, and again when it is heated in the oven. The two acids in the list (here, sodium acid pyrophosphate and monocalcium phosphate) are what make the two stages.
Sodium acid pyrophosphate (E450) / monocalcium phosphate (E341): The acid partners in a baking powder. They react with the bicarbonate to release gas. Different powders use different acids, in different proportions.
Cream of tartar: Potassium bitartrate, the acid half of a traditional baking powder. Sold on its own for recipes that mix their own leavening, and for stabilising egg whites.
Carrier / starch vs flour: The inert bulk that keeps the bicarbonate and the acid apart in the tub. Cornstarch is the usual carrier; RedMan uses wheat flour, which matters for gluten-free baking.
Baking powder vs baking soda: Powder is the complete system (bicarbonate + acid + carrier) and needs only liquid; soda is bicarbonate alone and needs an acid in the recipe. They are not interchangeable spoon-for-spoon.

What this page is not

Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. The products above are different products, and this page does not rank them.
Not a taste test, and not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
Not complete. The products in seen-but-not-verified are not yet panelled, for the verification reasons given, not hidden.

Sources and method

Checked 12 November 2026 from: FairPrice baking-powder-and-soda category page (Bake King Baking Powder 70 g/200 g, Bake King Baking Powder — Double Acting, Bake King Baking Soda 100 g/250 g, Bake King Cream Of Tartar 80 g, Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda, Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder (Gluten-Free), Bob's Red Mill Premium Quality Baking Soda, Bakerdream Double Acting Baking Powder, Bakerdream Food Grade Baking Soda, Xiao Chou Wa Food Grade Alkali, RedMan Baking Powder 5 kg, RedMan Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) 5 kg, Rumford Baking Powder 113 g, Green Earth Baking Soda); FairPrice ingredient section (RedMan Baking Powder — 'Wheat Flour, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophsphante, Monocalcium Phosphate', allergen wheat gluten, origin Singapore); FairPrice product page (Bake King Baking Soda — origin Singapore, Halal, usage notes, no INGREDIENTS section retrieved); Bake King official SG site (baking soda described as pure sodium bicarbonate; baking powder described generically). Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page, so its shelf could not be panelled from its site. Full per-fact source list is in the accompanying research notes. Nutrition: no panel was verified for any product on this page; nothing is estimated. Where a full pack list could not be verified, the product is in seen-but-not-verified instead of being panelled.