SINGAPORE— Healthier choices such as the option to swap white rice for brown and french fries for steamed corn will now be available at more eateries, under an effort by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to promote healthier eating.

Eighteen food service providers — including well-known names such as Fish & Co, Soup Restaurant and McDonald’s — with about 700 outlets and stalls between them now offer 500-calorie meals, under the HPB’s Healthier Dining Programme.

Fish & Co, for example, will have 11 such choices priced about 40 per cent less than regular menu items, while food court chains Kopitiam and Foodfare will require new and renewing tenants to include at least one 500-calorie meal option in their menus.

The agency hopes to increase the number of participating food service providers to 30 by the end of the year. Later this year, it also plans to roll out more Healthier Choice-label items, as well as make less-sweetened beverages more widely available.

Unveiling the HPB’s Food Strategy for Singapore yesterday, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Faishal Ibrahim cited the National Nutrition Survey from 2010, which found that 60 per cent of Singaporeans eat out at least four times a week and consume meals containing 700 to 800 calories.

This means someone who eats out thrice a day could easily exceed his or her recommended daily energy intake.

“In 2010, six in 10 Singaporeans exceeded the recommended energy intake,” Associate Professor Faishal Ibrahim said.

Not only are Singaporeans over-consuming calories, 60 per cent also consume two or more sweetened drinks a day, showed the survey. These sweetened beverages contribute about 200 calories per person per day in the form of empty calories, which make people feel hungry more quickly and easily.

With the new Food Strategy, the HPB hopes to increase the number of healthier eat-out meals consumed to 180 million meals a year, or 20 per cent of all eat-out meals, by 2020.

The Healthier Dining Programme follows the HPB’s pilot Healthier Hawker Programme launched in 2011, which encourages hawker stall operators to use healthier versions of ingredients.

Subsidies are provided to offset costs incurred from the switch. About 350 hawkers are participating in the programme, but the HPB said it has been challenging sustaining the programme, as it has been approaching centres individually to sign them up and relies on a single wholesaler.

Assoc Prof Faishal said the HPB has learnt three things from the Healthier Hawker Programme: That it has to influence all key aspects of the food supply chain to sustain the provision of healthier food options to consumers; that it should work with chain eateries and caterers to increase accessibility; and that it needs to help generate consumer demand through “nudges and incentives”.

The HPB plans to extend the subsidy scheme for hawkers to all wholesalers selling healthier ingredients. Such a subsidy could help offset the cost of healthier ingredients — typically more expensive — for wholesalers, so the costs do not get passed on to restaurants.

Details of the scheme will be announced in due course.