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Every nutrition label in Singapore is measured against a set of numbers — the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) published by the Health Promotion Board. They are the reference for the "% of daily allowance" on a pack, for the claims a product may make, and for the Healthier Choice Symbol. But almost nobody has seen the table itself, and the numbers are scattered across a dozen HealthHub pages. This guide puts them in one place, explains what each one means, shows how the average Singaporean diet actually compares — from the National Nutrition Survey 2025, announced in October 2026 — and walks through one ordinary day that meets the numbers, using food you can buy at any supermarket or hawker centre.
A recommended dietary allowance is the average daily intake judged sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97–98%) healthy people in a group. It is built for planning diets and labelling food, not for judging a single day's eating. It varies with age, sex, body size, activity and physiological state — a 25-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman have different numbers — and it carries a margin of safety, so eating slightly under it on one day is not a deficiency, and eating slightly over it is not a problem for most nutrients.
Two things the RDA is not: it is not a minimum below which you are automatically deficient, and it is not a target to maximise. For nutrients with an upper limit — sodium, sugar, saturated fat — the figure is a ceiling, not a goal. The table below mixes both kinds, and the "limit" rows are marked as such.
From the Health Promotion Board's Recommended Dietary Allowances (HealthHub). Energy needs vary by age, sex and activity; the figures here are the nutrient allowances for a healthy adult.
| Nutrient | Recommended per day | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Protein | 0.8 g per kg body weight (18–49); 1.2 g/kg (50+) | About 50–60 g a day for an average adult under 50. See the protein guide. |
| Dietary fibre | 20 g (women); 26 g (men) | About 10 g per 1,000 kcal. See the fibre guide. |
| Calcium | 800 mg (19–50); 1,000 mg (51+, pregnancy, lactation) | The Healthier Choice Symbol uses 800 mg as its reference value. See the dairy, lactose and calcium guide. |
| Iron | 8 mg (men); 18 mg (women) | Women need more because of menstrual losses. Iron from meat is absorbed better than iron from plants; vitamin C helps plant iron absorption. |
| Vitamin A | 750 mcg | As retinol activity equivalents. Found in liver, eggs, dairy, and as beta-carotene in orange and dark-green vegetables. |
| Vitamin D | 2.5 mcg, rising to 10 mcg from age 60 | Mostly made in the skin from sunlight — HPB recommends 5–30 minutes of sun, twice a week, 10am–3pm. Few foods contain much of it. |
| Vitamin C | 105 mg (men); 85 mg (women) | One orange or a serving of vegetables covers most of it. |
| Thiamin (vitamin B1) | 1.18 mg | Wholegrains, pork, legumes, nuts. |
| Riboflavin (vitamin B2) | 1.77 mg | Milk, eggs, wholegrains, leafy greens. |
| Niacin equivalent | 19.5 mg | Meat, fish, poultry, peanuts, wholegrains. |
| Vitamin B6 | 1.3 mg | Fish, poultry, bananas, potatoes, chickpeas. |
| Vitamin B12 | 2.4 mcg | Only in animal foods (meat, fish, eggs, dairy) or fortified foods. Vegans need a fortified source or supplement. |
| Folic acid | 400 mcg | Leafy greens, legumes, fortified bread and cereals. Women planning a pregnancy need more — that is a doctor's figure, not this table's. |
| Potassium | 3,500–4,700 mg | Fruit, vegetables, legumes, dairy. The average Singaporean gets about 2,500 mg. |
| Sodium — LIMIT | No more than 2,000 mg | About one teaspoon of salt. The average Singaporean eats 4,000 mg — twice the limit. |
| Sugar — LIMIT | No more than 10% of daily energy, about 50 g | HealthHub says 5% (about 25 g) brings further benefit. The average is now 48 g a day. |
| Saturated fat — LIMIT | No more than 30% of total fat | The average Singaporean diet is at 35% of total fat. WHO's version is no more than 10% of total energy. |
| Total fat | WHO: 30% or less of total energy | No MOH limit was given in the 2025 release. The average is 103 g a day. |
One footnote, because it confuses people who check labels: the Food Regulations' Appendix D daily allowances — the older table used for labelling claims — has slightly different values for a few vitamins (for example, vitamin B6 is 2.0 mg there, against 1.3 mg in the current RDA table). If a label's "% of daily allowance" looks different from this page, that is why. The table above is the Health Promotion Board's current RDA; the labelling table is a separate, older reference.
Counting milligrams is not how anyone eats. The Health Promotion Board's answer is My Healthy Plate, also called Quarter, Quarter, Half: a visual guide for building a balanced meal without weighing or counting.
| Plate portion | Food group | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ½ plate | Fruits and vegetables | Leafy greens, bok choy, kailan, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, papaya, guava, citrus. |
| ¼ plate | Wholegrains | Brown rice, mixed-grain rice, oats, wholemeal bread, wholegrain noodles, barley, quinoa. |
| ¼ plate | Protein foods | Fish, chicken, eggs, tofu, tempeh, lentils, beans, chickpeas, yogurt, nuts and seeds. |
The proportions are a guide, not a rigid formula — HPB says that if you cannot hit the ratio at one meal, you can balance it out across the day. Water is the drink that goes with the plate; the guidance is to choose whole fruit over fruit juice, and to limit fruit juice to two servings a day at most. The plate is also how the RDA table translates into shopping: the half-plate of fruit and vegetables is where the fibre, potassium, vitamin C and folate come from; the wholegrain quarter is where the fibre, B vitamins and magnesium come from; the protein quarter is where the protein, iron, zinc and B12 come from; and the calcium comes from the dairy or calcium-rich foods alongside it.
The National Nutrition Survey 2025 (Health Promotion Board, 3,000 residents aged 18–69, announced 3 October 2026) measured what Singaporeans actually eat against these numbers. The picture is mixed — one clear improvement, and several things moving the wrong way:
| What | Recommended | Average, 2025 | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar | ≤50 g a day | 48 g a day, down from 60 g in 2018; 79% within the limit (up from 61% in 2019) | Improving — driven by lower-sugar drinks and reformulation. |
| Sodium | ≤2,000 mg a day | 4,000 mg a day, up from 3,480 mg in 2019; 95% over the limit (up from 88%) | Worsening — the biggest gap on this page. Main sources: salt and sauces added during cooking, and eating out. |
| Calories | Depends on age, sex, activity | 2,460 kcal a day, up from 2,360 in 2019; 57% exceed their needs | Worsening — an extra 100 kcal a day is about 5 kg of weight gain a year if sustained. |
| Total fat | WHO: ≤30% of energy | 103 g a day, up from 94 g in 2019 | Worsening. |
| Saturated fat | ≤30% of total fat | 35% of total fat | Over the limit. |
| Refined carbohydrates | — | 166 g a day, up from 154 g in 2019 | Worsening — more white rice and white bread, fewer wholegrains. |
| Protein | 0.8 g/kg (under 50); 1.2 g/kg (50+) | Adequate for 79% of residents; but 55% of adults 50–69 fall short | Adequate overall; short for older adults. |
| Fibre | 20 g (women); 26 g (men) | About 13 g a day | About half the recommendation. |
| Potassium | 3,500–4,700 mg | About 2,500 mg a day | Short — a consequence of too few fruits, vegetables and legumes. |
Two things about how Singapore eats explain most of that table. Seven in ten residents eat out daily (up from six in ten in 2019), and HPB's analysis of 182 commonly consumed dishes found their calorie and sodium content rose by about 10% between 2023 and 2025 — fish ball noodles, for example, went from 557 to 646 kcal and from 1,200 to 1,700 mg of sodium. And the government has responded: Nutri-Grade labelling and advertising restrictions, currently for drinks, are being extended to salt, sauces, seasonings, instant noodles and cooking oil by 2028.
This is one ordinary day, built from the foods above, with approximate figures. It is an illustration of how the numbers add up — not a prescription, and not the only way to do it. Portions are everyday ones: a bowl, a plate, a glass.
| Meal | What | What it contributes (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Oats with milk, one egg, one banana | Protein about 18 g; fibre about 6 g; calcium about 250 mg; potassium from the banana. |
| Lunch | Brown rice, steamed fish or chicken, two vegetable dishes (cai fan style) | Protein about 25–30 g; fibre about 6 g; iron and B12 from the fish or meat; the wholegrain quarter and the vegetable half in one plate. |
| Snack | Plain yogurt and an apple | Protein about 10 g; calcium about 150 mg; fibre about 2.4 g; vitamin C. |
| Dinner | Wholemeal bread or noodles, tofu or lentils, stir-fried vegetables, a small serving of cheese or a glass of milk | Protein about 25 g; fibre about 8 g; calcium about 300 mg; folate and potassium from the vegetables and legumes. |
| Drinks | Water; tea or coffee kosong | No sugar, no sodium — the two numbers that are hardest to keep down. |
Add it up, roughly: protein about 80 g (enough for a 65 kg adult under 50 at 0.8 g/kg, and close to the 20–25 g per meal that older adults are advised to aim for); fibre about 22 g (past the 20 g target for women, near the 26 g target for men); calcium about 700–800 mg (near the 800 mg RDA, and a glass of milk or a calcium-set tofu dish would close the rest); sodium kept down by going easy on soy sauce and soup, and by drinking water instead of a sweetened drink. Nothing in that day is exotic, expensive or hard to find — and nothing in it requires a supplement.
The nutrition panel is where the RDA meets the shelf. Three things to know:
Most people should get all the nutrients they need from a varied and balanced diet — that is the Health Promotion Board's starting position, and the evidence supports it for most nutrients. Health supplements in Singapore are not subject to approval, licensing or evaluation for effectiveness before they reach the market; the onus sits with the dealer, advertisements are not pre-screened by the Health Sciences Authority, and "HSA approved" is not something the authority grants, because it does not assess or approve supplements for efficacy. There is no scientific evidence behind "detoxify your body" as a supplement claim, because such products work by promoting water loss or stimulating bowel movements.
Some people do need extra supplements — vitamin D where sunlight is limited, vitamin B12 for people who eat no animal foods, folic acid for women planning a pregnancy, iron where a doctor has found a deficiency. Those are specific gaps measured against specific numbers, and they belong with a doctor or dietitian. A multivitamin is a reasonable safety net for a diet that is genuinely limited, but it is not a substitute for the food that carries the fibre, the potassium and the protein alongside the vitamins.
Three checks, in order:
Pages where these checks are most useful: the protein guide, the fibre guide, the dairy, lactose and calcium guide, the fermented foods guide, the sugar and salt guide, the fats and cholesterol guide and the organic food guide, and the category pages for oats and instant oatmeal, rice, sandwich bread, fresh chicken, fresh salmon, tofu and tempeh, yogurt, fresh milk, plant milks, mixed nuts, dried fruit, canned sardines, eggs and dried lentils and chickpeas.