Insect Food and Feed Regulatory Framework

Singapore Food Agency (SFA) regulates insects used as human food and as animal feed through a species-and-process framework. As at SFA's current guidance, 16 insect species are listed in the Food Safety and Security (Catalogued Insect-like Species) Order 2025 as assessed for human consumption and animal feed (SFA, Insects for Food and Feed, accessed 30 August 2026). The list is not permission to farm or sell insects without the applicable SFA licence, import requirements, food regulations and production controls.

Approved species and new species

The catalogue specifies species and, where relevant, the permitted life stage. Examples include adult house crickets and locusts, larval mealworms and superworms, wax-moth larvae, silkworm larvae or pupae, and western honey-bee larvae or adults (SFA, Insect Regulatory Framework, accessed 12 September 2026). An insect not on the catalogue must undergo SFA evaluation before it can be used as human food or feed in the relevant scope. Information for a new-species assessment includes the scientific name and intended life stage, farming and processing method, substrate, evidence of history of human-food use outside Singapore, safety sources and a Singapore address or entity for the applicant. The live SFA framework page, rather than an older downloadable list URL, is the current source for checking the catalogue and assessment route.

Production and food-safety controls

Insects for food must be farmed in a controlled environment rather than harvested from the wild, except that wild-harvested insects may be used as supplemental breeding stock under SFA's production guidance. Substrates must not introduce contaminants: manure, decomposing organic material and material from diseased animals or fish are not allowed, while controlled fermentation is treated separately in the guidance (SFA, local production of insects, accessed 30 August 2026). Producers should establish a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) or Food Safety Management System plan, and food insects must receive sufficient heat treatment or an equivalent bactericidal process before consumption.

Licensing, import and labelling

Businesses producing, processing, packaging or storing insect food generally fall within SFA food-licensing or registration requirements. Importers must declare the specific insect species and use the relevant permit, health-certificate and establishment information; the imported species must be on the catalogue unless separately evaluated (SFA, import requirements, accessed 30 August 2026). Pre-packaged insect products must identify the true nature of the food. SFA also warns that people with shellfish or crustacean allergies may react to insects because some allergenic proteins overlap. Consumers should not eat insects live or raw and should buy insect products from SFA-licensed businesses.

Statutory boundary

From 28 November 2025, the Food Safety and Security Act treats an edible insect-like species that is not catalogued as “defined food”; supplying or handling defined food in the circumstances specified by the Act is an offence without the relevant authorisation (SFA, Food Safety and Security Act, accessed 30 August 2026). The insect framework is therefore related to, but not identical with, the novel-food pre-market approval framework: the catalogue and species-evaluation route govern insect-like species, while novel-food approval addresses the wider statutory category of novel foods and ingredients. Neither framework replaces product-specific SFA advice or ordinary food-safety and labelling duties.