Household Ingredients Compared › Canned coconut milk (Singapore)

Canned coconut milk: what's actually in it?

Canned and carton coconut milk is one of the most confusing shelves in the supermarket, because the same brand sells the same name in different strengths: a 270 ml can at 89% coconut extract, a 200 ml carton at 74%, a "trim" version at 48%, and a cream at 100%. The coconut percentage is the whole story — everything else is water, a stabiliser, or both.

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 added sugar, allergens and additives.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Coconut percentage is the key number. Ayam's can is 89% coconut kernel extract; its carton is 74%; its Trim is 48% extract with coconut water first; its cream is 100% extract. Energy follows it: 247, 207, 131 and 285 kcal per 100 ml.
Stabilisers are the second ingredient story. Ayam's carton uses guar gum (and xanthan gum on some listings); Kara uses xanthan, guar and carrageenan; Chaokoh uses emulsifier E435. The 100% cream and the 89% can use none.
Two different Ayam 200 ml lists exist — the SG site's 1 L list (extract 74%, coconut water, guar gum) and a retailer list for the 200 ml carton (extract 74%, stabilisers guar + xanthan, no coconut water named). Both are panelled as their own rows and the difference is flagged.
Kara's country of manufacture is conflicted: one retailer lists Singapore, Open Food Facts gives Indonesia as the origin of ingredients. Both are stated, neither merged.
No added sugar in any panelled coconut milk. The sugars printed (1.6–3.9 g per 100 ml) are the coconut's own sugars; no panelled list contains sugar, syrup or sweetener.

At a glance

Product	Pack size (as printed)	First ingredient	Country of manufacture (as printed)	Added sugar?
Ayam Coconut Milk 270 ml (can)	270ml	Coconut kernel extract (89%)	not stated	No sugar listed
Ayam Coconut Milk 200 ml (UHT carton)	200ml	Coconut extract (74%)	not stated	No sugar listed
Ayam Coconut Milk 1 L (UHT)	1L	Coconut extract (74%)	not stated	No sugar listed
Ayam Trim Coconut Milk 200 ml	200ml	Coconut water	not stated	No sugar listed
Ayam Coconut Cream 140 ml	140ml	Coconut kernel extract (100%)	not stated	No sugar listed
Ayam Coconut Milk — Premium (FairPrice)	270ml	Fresh Coconut Kernel Extract	not stated	No sugar listed
Kara UHT Coconut Milk	200ml / 1L	Fresh Coconut Extract (64%)	Singapore (retailer) / Indonesia (OFF) — conflict	No sugar listed
Kara UHT Coconut Cream 24%	200ml	Fresh Coconut Cream (99.9%)	not stated	No sugar listed
Chaokoh Coconut Milk	not stated	Coconut extract (70%)	Thailand	No sugar listed

Panelled with verbatim lists: 9 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.

Panelled — Ayam Brand

Ayam Brand Coconut Milk, 270 ml can

Pack size: 270ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Ayam Brand official site (ayam.com)): Coconut kernel extract (89%), water.

The strongest Ayam milk: 89% extract, water, nothing else. Per-100 ml energy 247 kcal is the highest of the Ayam milks (the cream is higher still). Country of manufacture: not stated No stabiliser No added sugar

Ayam Brand Coconut Milk, 200 ml UHT carton

Pack size: 200ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Retailer listing (myAEON2go) — SG-site 1 L list differs, see note): Coconut extract (74%), Stabilisers (guar gum, xanthan gum).

Flag: the SG brand site's 1 L page gives "Coconut extract (74%), coconut water, guar gum" — coconut water named, xanthan gum not named. The 200 ml retailer list gives stabilisers (guar gum, xanthan gum) with no coconut water named. The two lists are panelled as separate rows (this one and the 1 L row below) and not merged; the SG pack must settle whether the carton and the 1 L pack differ. Country of manufacture: not stated Stabilisers: guar gum, xanthan gum No added sugar

Ayam Brand Coconut Milk, 1 L UHT

Pack size: 1L · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Ayam Brand Singapore official site): Coconut extract (74%), coconut water, guar gum.

Same 74% extract as the 200 ml carton, but coconut water is named and only guar gum is listed as stabiliser. Per-100 ml energy is 195 kcal, lower than the 200 ml carton's 207 kcal — the two packs are not nutritionally identical either. Country of manufacture: not stated Stabiliser: guar gum No added sugar

Ayam Brand Trim Coconut Milk, 200 ml

Pack size: 200ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Ayam Brand Singapore official site): Coconut water, coconut extract (48%), guar gum.

Coconut water leads the list and extract drops to 48%, which is why this is the lightest Ayam milk at 131 kcal per 100 ml. The brand positions it as 45% less fat than raw coconut milk. Country of manufacture: not stated 45% less fat than raw coconut milk (brand claim) Coconut water first

Ayam Brand Coconut Cream, 140 ml

Pack size: 140ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Ayam Brand official site (ayam.com)): Coconut kernel extract (100%).

One ingredient, 100% coconut kernel extract, no water, no stabiliser. The richest panelled product at 285 kcal and 28.5 g fat per 100 ml. This is coconut cream, not coconut milk — it is filed here because it shares the shelf and the brand range, and the distinction is the point. Country of manufacture: not stated One ingredient No added sugar

Ayam Brand Coconut Milk — Premium (FairPrice listing)

Pack size: 270ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice Singapore ingredient section): Fresh Coconut Kernel Extract.

FairPrice's ingredient section gives a single ingredient — fresh coconut kernel extract — with no percentage and no water. Nutrition is printed per 70 ml serving only, so it sits in the per-serving table, not the per-100 ml table. Country of manufacture: not stated Via: FairPrice Per-serving nutrition only

Panelled — Kara and Chaokoh

Kara UHT Coconut Milk

Pack size: 200ml / 1L · Made in: Singapore (retailer) / Indonesia (OFF) — conflict (as printed)

Ingredients (Retailer listing (Dubai Grocers) corroborated by Open Food Facts Kara entries): Fresh Coconut Extract (64%), Water and Thickeners (Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum and Carrageenan).

Conflict flagged: one retailer lists the country of production as Singapore; Open Food Facts gives Indonesia as the origin of ingredients for Kara. Both are stated. A second Kara listing (UK) gives the same 64% extract list with xanthan and guar gum only — carrageenan appears on the Dubai Grocers list, so the thickener set may vary by market. Country of manufacture: Singapore (retailer country-of-production field) — conflicts with Open Food Facts origin of ingredients: Indonesia Thickeners: xanthan, guar, carrageenan No added sugar

Kara UHT Coconut Cream 24%

Pack size: 200ml · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts (Singapore listed among countries where sold)): Fresh Coconut Cream (99.9%), Stabilizers (Xanthan Gum E415, Guar Gum E412, Carrageenan E407).

Nearly all coconut cream with three stabilisers. Per-100 ml energy 233 kcal, fat 23.3 g, all of it saturated fat as printed. Sugars are printed as 0 g per 100 ml on this entry — an outlier against the other Kara and Ayam rows, and flagged as printed, not corrected. Country of manufacture: not stated 99.9% coconut cream Stabilisers: E415, E412, E407

Chaokoh Coconut Milk

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

Ingredients (Open Food Facts (European entries; SG sale via FairPrice/Donki listings)): Coconut extract 70%, water, emulsifier: E435.

Flag: the list is from Open Food Facts European entries (France/Germany); the SG pack was not transcribed. Chaokoh is the Thai brand on the SG shelf alongside Ayam and Kara. E435 is polyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate, an emulsifier — a different approach from the gum stabilisers the other brands use. Country of manufacture: Thailand (manufacturing place, per Open Food Facts) Emulsifier: E435 No added sugar

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Ayam Brand Super Light Coconut Milk, 330 ml carton — a social-media comparison gives 58 kcal per 100 ml, 5 g fat, 0.6 g protein, 2.6 g carbohydrate and 2.6 g sugar, but no ingredient list was retrieved, so it is not panelled.
Ayam Brand Coconut Milk Powder — a different product (powder, with dairy in the brand's own note — "No dairy is used in AYAM coconut products with the exception of AYAM Coconut Milk Powder"); no SG list retrieved.
Kara Light Coconut Milk — an Open Food Facts French entry exists (fresh coconut water 57%, fresh coconut extract 42.9%, xanthan and guar gums), but SG sale of this variant was not verified, so it is not panelled as an SG product.
Aroy-D, FairPrice house-brand and other coconut milks — seen on SG shelves/listings; no verbatim SG ingredient sections were retrieved in this pass.
Chaokoh Coconut Cream / Chaokoh light variants — no SG verbatim lists retrieved.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the sortable table are as sold, per 100 g / 100 ml. Click a column header to sort lowest-to-highest, click again for highest-to-lowest; "not stated" always sorts last, because a missing figure is not zero. Per-serving-only figures are in a separate table below and are never sorted against per-100 figures. No Nutri-Grade applies to these foods as non-drinks, except where a drink Nutri-Grade is officially printed — none is quoted or assigned here.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Where the source prints salt only, sodium is shown as salt ÷ 2.5 and flagged as derived. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: most 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 (sugar, glucose syrup, invert sugar syrup) 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.

Product	Energy	Protein	Total fat	Saturated fat	Carbohydrate	Sugars	Sodium (salt equiv.)
Ayam Coconut Milk 270 ml can	247 kcal	2.6 g	24.3 g	21.6 g	3.9 g	1.6 g	24 mg (salt 0.06 g)
Ayam Coconut Milk 200 ml carton	207 kcal	2.2 g	20.6 g	not stated	2.8 g	2.7 g	16 mg (salt 0.04 g)
Ayam Coconut Milk 1 L	195 kcal	1.9 g	20.0 g	18.8 g	2.6 g	2.4 g	31 mg (salt 0.08 g)
Ayam Trim Coconut Milk 200 ml	131 kcal	1.3 g	13.0 g	not stated	2.1 g	not stated	13 mg (salt 0.03 g)
Ayam Coconut Cream 140 ml	285 kcal	3.1 g	28.5 g	25.5 g	4.0 g	3.9 g	19 mg (salt 0.05 g)
Kara UHT Coconut Milk	174 kcal	1.7 g	17.6 g	not stated	2.1 g	1.6 g	9 mg (salt 0.02 g)
Kara UHT Coconut Cream 24%	233 kcal	not stated	23.3 g	23.3 g	6.67 g	0 g	not stated
Chaokoh Coconut Milk	175 kcal	1.25 g	18.75 g	15 g	1.25 g	1.25 g	31 mg (salt 0.08 g) — sodium derived from printed salt

Per-serving figures only — quoted exactly as printed, not converted

Product	Serving as printed	Energy	Protein	Total fat	Saturated fat	Carbohydrate	Sugars	Sodium (salt equiv.)
Ayam Coconut Milk — Premium (FairPrice)	70 ml	172 kcal	1.8 g	17 g	not stated	2.7 g	not stated	16.9 mg (salt 0.04 g)

These rows are per serving, not per 100 g / 100 ml — do not compare them with the table above.

Observed numbers, no verdict: Energy per 100 ml tracks the coconut percentage: Ayam Cream (100%) 285 kcal, Ayam can (89%) 247 kcal, Ayam carton (74%) 207 kcal, Chaokoh (70%) 175 kcal, Kara (64%) 174 kcal, Ayam Trim (48%) 131 kcal. Saturated fat is nearly all of the total fat in every row where both are printed. Sugars are 0–3.9 g per 100 ml and are the coconut's own sugars — no panelled list adds sugar.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): no per-100 ml nutrition panel was verified in this pass for the Ayam Super Light carton or any seen-but-not-verified product. The Premium FairPrice row is per-serving only. Kara Coconut Cream sugars are printed as 0 g per 100 ml on the Open Food Facts entry — quoted as printed.

How to read the label — the jargon, in plain English

Coconut kernel extract / coconut extract: The pressed flesh of the coconut, with or without added water. The percentage is the share of the product that is coconut extract — the higher it is, the richer the milk.
Coconut water: The clear liquid inside the coconut. In Trim, it is the first ingredient and dilutes the milk; it is not the same as coconut milk.
Guar gum (E412) / xanthan gum (E415) / carrageenan (E407): Thickeners and stabilisers that keep coconut milk from separating in the carton. Ayam uses guar gum; Kara uses all three; Chaokoh uses an emulsifier instead.
Emulsifier E435: Polyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate — an emulsifier that keeps fat and water mixed. Used by Chaokoh; not used by Ayam or Kara.
Trim / light: A lower-fat version made by diluting with coconut water and lowering the extract share — 48% for Ayam Trim against 74–89% for its regular milks.
Coconut cream vs coconut milk: Cream is the undiluted extract (100% for Ayam's cream); milk is extract diluted with water and/or coconut water. The names are not interchangeable on a label.

What this page is not

Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. Different products in this category 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: Ayam Brand Singapore official site (1 L coconut milk, Trim 200 ml — ingredients and per-100 ml nutrition); Ayam Brand official site ayam.com (270 ml can, coconut cream 140 ml — ingredients and per-100 ml nutrition); FairPrice Singapore ingredient section for Ayam Coconut Milk — Premium (single ingredient, per-70 ml serving nutrition); retailer listing myAEON2go for the Ayam 200 ml carton (ingredients and nutrition); Dubai Grocers retailer listing for Kara UHT Coconut Milk (ingredients and per-100 ml nutrition); Open Food Facts for Kara UHT Coconut Cream 24% (Singapore listed among countries where sold), Kara Light (French entry, not panelled), and Chaokoh coconut milk (ingredients and per-100 ml nutrition); a Threads infographic for the Ayam Super Light figures (not panelled — no list). Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page. Nutrition figures are standardised to per 100 ml where the source gives per-100 figures; per-serving-only figures are labelled as such and are not converted; sugars are total sugars as printed, not added sugars, unless the source states added sugars; salt = sodium × 2.5. Where a full pack list could not be verified, the product is in seen-but-not-verified instead of being panelled.