Singapore Industrial 2H/2024

FOOD FACTORIES, WHAT ARE THEY?

If you ask Google, the abridged answer would be something like this: Food factories, also known as food manufacturing facilities, are places where agriculture products are processed. This can include drying, threshing, milling grain, shelling nuts, butchering animals, and more. Commercial food processing uses control systems to reduce the risk of harm and improve food safety.

Arising from this AI explanation, one would think that it is a place where you process agricultural products into canned or packed food. However, in Singapore, food factories do much more than that. Also, their locations are mostly fixed by the URA and JTC. Map 1 shows the location of the major food zones in Singapore. Although there are minor exceptions to the case, only in certain areas on the island can one set up a food factory. In recent years, food factories are also used as staging areas where restauranters pre-cook their food before their last mile delivery to the final place of consumption. This is quite unique to Singapore for reasons that will be explained later.