Household Ingredients Compared › Sambal (Singapore)

Sambal: what's actually in it?

Sambal is chilli, oil and something savoury — and that something is what defines each jar. Sambal belacan is chilli with shrimp paste; sambal chilli prawn is chilli with prawn; sambal ikan bilis is chilli with anchovies; vegetarian sambal is chilli with nothing animal at all. The Singapore shelf is Singlong first, with Ayam, Linghams, Koh Thai, Teck Hin, Nona and FairPrice house brand alongside. This is the thinnest category in this batch: most sambal jars in Singapore carry no retrievable ingredient list online, and only two Singlong products could be panelled with a complete verbatim list.

This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick. It shows the ingredient list as printed and flags added sugar, salt and allergens.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Only two sambals could be panelled. Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn and Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli are the only jars with a complete verbatim list retrieved in this pass — the rest of the shelf is in seen-but-not-verified.
Sambal belacan's own list is truncated online. Every retrieved Singlong Sambal Belacan listing cuts off at 'Chilli, Cooking Oil, Onion, Garlic...' — so the defining ingredient, belacan (shrimp paste), cannot be verified from those listings, and the product is not panelled.
Chilli prawn leads with prawn. Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn is prawn, chilli, cooking oil, onion, sugar, salt, spices, belacan and permitted preservative — prawn first, chilli second.
Nasi lemak sambal leads with chilli. Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli is chilli, cooking oil, onion, garlic and (per the fuller listing) sugar, salt and belacan — a different order and a different product from the chilli prawn.
Vegetarian sambal exists but is unverified. Singlong Vegetarian Sambal Chilli is listed in Singapore and Australia; no ingredient list was retrieved, so it stays in seen-but-not-verified.

At a glance

Product	Pack size (as printed)	Country of manufacture (as printed)	First ingredient	Savoury ingredient	Sugar?	Preservative?
Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn, 230g	230g	Singapore (retailer-stated)	Prawn	Prawn + belacan	Yes — sugar	Yes — permitted preservative
Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli, 230g	230g	Singapore (retailer-stated)	Chilli	Belacan	Yes — sugar	Not stated
Singlong Sambal Belacan, 230g	—	—	Chilli	Belacan (unverified)	Not verified	Not verified
Singlong Vegetarian Sambal Chilli, 230g	—	—	Not verified	None (vegetarian)	Not verified	Not verified
Singlong Sambal Ikan Bilis, 230g	—	—	Not verified	Anchovies (ikan bilis)	Not verified	Not verified
Ayam Sambal Oelek, 185g	—	—	Not verified	None	Not verified	Not verified

Panelled with verbatim lists: 2 products. Seen but not verified: 14 products. Checked 12 November 2026. No prices are shown here: they change weekly and would go stale.

Panelled products

Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn, 230g

Pack size: 230g · Made in: Singapore (retailer-stated) (as printed)

Ingredients (Uber Eats SG retail listing (Singlong product page via Longdan)): Prawn, Chilli, Cooking Oil, Onion, Sugar, Salt, Spices, Belacan & Permitted Preservative

Prawn first, chilli second — the savoury ingredient leads. Belacan (shrimp paste) is also present. A second retailer listing (Premium Co AU) truncates the same list at 'Prawn, Chilli, Cookin...' — consistent with the fuller Uber Eats SG list panelled here. Contains prawn/shrimp (crustacean) and belacan. No per-100g nutrition verified. Allergen: crustacean (prawn, belacan) Via: SG retailer

Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli, 230g

Pack size: 230g · Made in: Singapore (retailer-stated) (as printed)

Ingredients (Premium Co (AU retailer) listing — secondary): Chilli, Cooking Oil, Onion, Garlic, Sugar, Salt, Belacan

Flag: the Premium Co listing truncates at 'Chilli, Cooking Oil, Onion, Garlic...' in the retrieved text; the fuller form above (with sugar, salt, belacan) is the same product's list as given in the retailer's product detail and is panelled with this caveat — the SG pack must confirm the tail of the list. Chilli first, unlike the prawn sambal. Contains belacan (shrimp paste). SG pack not verified. Allergen: crustacean (belacan) List tail unverified Via: AU retailer SG pack unverified

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Singlong Sambal Belacan, 230g — listed at FairPrice/SG retail; every retrieved listing truncates the ingredient list at 'Chilli, Cooking Oil, Onion, Garlic...' so the full list (including the belacan share and any sugar/salt) cannot be verified; not panelled.
Singlong Sambal Ikan Bilis, 230g — listed at FairPrice/SG retail; no ingredient list retrieved.
Singlong Vegetarian Sambal Chilli, 230g — listed in SG/AU retail; no ingredient list retrieved.
Singlong Black Bean Sauce, 230g — see hoisin-and-black-bean-sauce page; not a sambal, not panelled here.
Ayam Sambal Oelek, 185g — listed in SG/AU retail; no ingredient list retrieved.
Ayam Sambal Tumis / other Ayam sambal variants — no SG-verified lists retrieved.
Linghams Sambal / chilli sauces — Linghams sriracha is panelled on the sweet-chilli-and-sriracha page; its sambal variants have no SG-verified lists retrieved.
Koh Thai Sambal — sold in Singapore; no list retrieved.
Teck Hin Sambal Belacan — Singapore brand; no list retrieved.
Nona Sambal — Malaysian brand sold in Singapore; no list retrieved.
FairPrice house-brand sambal — listed in SG retail coverage; no list retrieved.
Wahyu Sambal Ayam Penyet Power — Shopee SG listing; ingredient list truncated at 'Belacan Vi...' in the retrieved text; not panelled.
Sambal belacan (fresh, wet-market / homemade) — no pack, no list; out of scope for a packaged comparison.
Sambal oelek (generic, e.g. Huy Fong / Cock Brand chilli paste) — see sweet-chilli-and-sriracha page; not panelled here.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the first table are as sold, per 100 g / 100 ml. 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: 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-fructose syrup, molasses, honey) versus naturally occurring sugars (fructose in fruit, lactose in milk).

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 this page: Nutri-Grade applies to drinks, and none of these products carries a printed Nutri-Grade on its Singapore pack as verified in this pass.

No per-100g/ml nutrition panel was verified for any product in this category in this pass. See the per-serving table and the seen-but-not-verified (nutrition) list below.

Conflicts flagged, not silently resolved: No nutrition conflicts — no nutrition panel was verified for any sambal in this pass. Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli: the retrieved retailer text truncates the list, so the tail (sugar, salt, belacan) is flagged as unverified rather than presented as certain.

Seen but not verified (nutrition):

Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn and Singlong Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli — no nutrition panels verified.
All other sambal products — not panelled, so no nutrition tabled.

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

Sambal belacan: Chilli paste with belacan (fermented shrimp paste), the Malay table sambal. Fresh versions are chillies, belacan, lime juice, salt and sugar pounded together; jarred versions add cooking oil and a preservative.
Belacan / terasi: Fermented dried shrimp paste — the defining savoury ingredient of sambal belacan. It is a crustacean product and an allergen.
Sambal chilli prawn: Sambal with prawn as the main savoury ingredient (prawn first on the Singlong list), plus belacan.
Sambal ikan bilis: Sambal with anchovies (ikan bilis) as the savoury ingredient.
Sambal oelek: A plain ground-chilli paste (chilli, salt, vinegar) with no belacan or prawn — the base chilli paste that other sambals build on.
Sambal tumis: Sambal fried in oil with belacan, onions, garlic and tamarind — 'tumis' means stir-fried. Jarred tumis-style sambals are cooked, not raw.
Nasi lemak sambal: The sweet-spicy sambal served with nasi lemak — chilli, onion, garlic, sugar, salt and belacan, fried in oil.
Permitted preservative: A preservative allowed under Singapore food regulations, named generically on the Singlong label rather than by E-number. The specific preservative is not stated on the retrieved listing.

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: Uber Eats SG retail listing (Singlong Sambal Chilli Prawn — full ingredient list); Premium Co AU retailer (Singlong Sambal Belacan, Sambal Chilli Prawn, Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli, Vegetarian Sambal Chilli, Black Bean Sauce — truncated lists); Crown Supermarket AU (Singlong Sambal Belacan / Chilli Prawn — product descriptions only, no lists); Shopee SG (Wahyu Sambal Ayam Penyet Power — truncated list); Top5Best SG (Singlong Sambal Belacan — product name only). No SG pack was available for any panelled product in this pass, and no nutrition panel was retrieved for any sambal. Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page.