Household Ingredients Compared  ›  Couscous and Quinoa (Singapore)

Couscous and quinoa: what's actually in them?

Couscous and quinoa sit together on the shelf but are different foods: couscous is pasta — tiny balls of durum wheat semolina — while quinoa is a seed (a pseudocereal), naturally gluten-free. Both are usually single-ingredient products, so the differences on this page are the variant (wholemeal couscous has more protein and fibre than plain; pearl couscous is made in Italy, plain couscous in Australia) and the colour mix (tri-colour quinoa blends white, red and black seeds).

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 and allergens.

The headline, in 30 seconds

• Couscous is pasta, quinoa is a seed. San Remo couscous is durum wheat semolina (contains gluten). Quinoa is a whole-grain seed, naturally gluten-free, with all nine essential amino acids.
• Wholemeal couscous beats plain on protein and fibre. San Remo Wholemeal: protein 15 g, fibre 13 g per 100g. San Remo plain: protein 12 g, fibre 4 g per 100g. Same brand, different semolina.
• Pearl couscous is the odd one out on origin. San Remo Pearl Couscous is a product of Italy; plain and wholemeal couscous are products of Australia. Same brand, different country of manufacture — recorded per variant, never merged.
• Bob's Red Mill tri-colour quinoa is one ingredient. Organic whole grain quinoa — the only panelled quinoa, from USDA/iHerb data, because no FairPrice quinoa brand had a retrieved ingredient section.

At a glance

Panelled with verbatim lists: 4 products. Prices are deliberately not shown here: they change weekly and would go stale.

Couscous

Quinoa

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

• Nature's Nutrition Organic Quinoa — White; Tricolour; Red (500g) — FairPrice lists all three; no ingredient or nutrition section retrieved for any.
• Origins Organic White Quinoa; Origins Organic Tri-Color Quinoa; Origins Healthfood Organic Hulled Millet — FairPrice lists them; no ingredient section retrieved.
• Superfarm Organic White Quinoa 1kg; Superfarm Organic Tricolor Quinoa — FairPrice lists both; no ingredient section retrieved.
• Green Earth Organic Tri Colour Quinoa — FairPrice lists it; no ingredient section retrieved.
• Simply Natural Organic White Couscous — listed in SG retail coverage; no ingredient section retrieved.
• Bob's Red Mill Organic White Couscous — iHerb SG lists it; no ingredient section retrieved.
• San Remo Moroccan Flavour Cous Cous (98% fat free) — a flavoured couscous variant; no SG list retrieved.
• Ayam Brand Tuna Light Meal — Chickpeas, Lentils & Quinoa (Mildly Spicy) — a ready meal containing quinoa, not a plain quinoa product; out of scope for this page.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures are per 100g, as sold (dry, uncooked). Quinoa and couscous are both dry grains; the comparison that matters is protein and fibre, where wholemeal couscous and quinoa pull ahead of plain couscous.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Where a source printed salt only, the sodium figure is salt ÷ 2.5 and is flagged as computed.

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.

Click a column header to sort low-to-high, click again for high-to-low. Rows marked "not stated" always sort last — a dash is missing data, not zero. 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 applies to these foods as non-drinks, and none is quoted or assigned here.

Observed numbers, no verdict: Protein is 12 g (plain couscous), 15 g (wholemeal couscous), 12.5 g (pearl couscous) and 12.5 g (tri-colour quinoa) per 100g. Fibre, where stated, is 4 g (plain couscous) against 13 g (wholemeal couscous) per 100g. Sodium is 40 mg, 50 mg, 15 mg and 0 mg respectively. Sugars are total sugars as printed (2–2.7 g).

Conflicts flagged, not silently resolved: Bob's Red Mill tri-colour quinoa protein: the USDA table gives 12.5 g per 100g (and 13 g in its summary line), while iHerb customer reviews quote 12.6 g — the table follows the USDA table value (12.5 g) and flags the others. San Remo plain couscous saturated fat: FairPrice prints 0.5 g; a NZ retailer listing prints 2.1 g per 100g in one column and 0.5 g in another — the table follows FairPrice (0.5 g) and flags the retailer inconsistency. San Remo pearl couscous saturated fat is likewise inconsistent across retailer columns (1.6 g vs 1 g) and is recorded as not stated.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): Nature's Nutrition Organic Quinoa (White, Tricolour, Red); Origins Organic White and Tri-Color Quinoa; Superfarm Organic White and Tricolor Quinoa; Green Earth Organic Tri Colour Quinoa; Simply Natural Organic White Couscous; Bob's Red Mill Organic White Couscous; San Remo Moroccan Flavour Cous Cous. No nutrition panel was retrieved for any of these.

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

Couscous

Tiny balls of durum wheat semolina pasta, steamed rather than boiled. It is pasta, not a grain — it contains gluten. Pearl (Israeli) couscous is larger balls of the same semolina.

Quinoa

The seed of Chenopodium quinoa, a South American pseudocereal (not a grass). Naturally gluten-free, with all nine essential amino acids. Tri-colour quinoa blends white, red and black seeds.

Wholemeal couscous

Couscous made from whole durum wheat (whole semolina) rather than refined semolina — more protein (15 g vs 12 g) and much more fibre (13 g vs 4 g) per 100g.

Pseudocereal

A seed used like a cereal but not from a grass — quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth. Quinoa is the pseudocereal on this page; couscous is a true wheat pasta.

What this page is not

• Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. This page does not rank products.
• 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 nutrition section (San Remo Cous Cous, per-100g) and similar-products listings (quinoa inventory: Superfarm, Nature's Nutrition, Origins, Green Earth); San Remo brand site Australia (Wholemeal Couscous ingredients and nutrition); NZ retailer listings (San Remo Couscous, Pearl Couscous — ingredients, origin, nutrition); USDA branded data via NutritionValue and Prospre (Bob's Red Mill Organic Tri-Color Quinoa ingredients and nutrition); iHerb SG (Bob's Red Mill Tri-Color Quinoa, SG customer reviews). Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page.