Home-Based Food Businesses

Singapore's SFA currently allows home-based food businesses (HBFBs) to operate without an SFA food-retail licence because their small scale is assessed as posing lower food-safety risks than restaurants and other licensed food establishments. The absence of a licence does not exempt an HBFB from food laws, food-safety requirements or SFA enforcement (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

What HBFBs may and may not do

HBFBs must not offer catering, including buffet lines or packed meals, because catering operates at a larger scale and is reserved for SFA-licensed food businesses. They also must not sell food to SFA-licensed retailers such as hawker stalls, restaurants, cafés, canteens or temporary-fair stalls, and must not prepare food at home for sale at a temporary fair or to another fair stallholder (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

HBFBs are strictly prohibited from selling ready-to-eat raw seafood, including sashimi, oysters and raw marinated seafood. SFA treats this as high-risk food because it does not receive the heat treatment needed to remove microbiological contamination and home operations are unlikely to have the required cold-chain and segregation facilities (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

Sourcing and food-safety duties

HBFBs must use ingredients that are legally imported or sourced from licensed manufacturers and suppliers. They must not source ingredients from another HBFB or use food brought back from overseas for private consumption. An HBFB that imports ingredients itself needs the applicable SFA import licence; using a licensed importer is the alternative route (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

The operator remains responsible for safe preparation and sale. SFA recommends food-safety training such as WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1, following the HDB/URA Home-Based Small Scale Business Scheme guidance and applying good hygiene practices. A food-safety breach can lead to enforcement, including a direction to stop operations immediately or recall products (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

Online sales and scaling up

SFA does not prohibit HBFBs from promoting or selling through food-delivery platforms, but platforms may impose their own requirements. The home-based exemption is about the business's scale and operating setting, not a general exemption from food law or a guarantee that every online food model qualifies (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).

Operators whose demand or activities exceed what a home can safely support should move to a licensed food premise. In particular, catering, supplying licensed retailers, temporary-fair production and high-risk ready-to-eat raw seafood are not ways to expand within the HBFB boundary; they require the relevant licensed or approved operating route (SFA, Requirements for Home-Based Food Businesses, last updated 4 August 2026, accessed 30 August 2026).