Alexandra Hospital Makes Diabetic-Friendly Jams

It plans to sell the strawberry and orange jam sachets and create more flavors

- Tan Hsueh Yun

Alexandra Hospital was in a jam. The sugar-free jam it serves to patients with diabetes comes from the United States, and there is a minimum order, plus a wait, for it to get to Singapore.

The hospital, Singapore's smallest public one with 300 beds, would struggle to use up the single-serve packs of jam before they expired.

So, its head of food services, Mr Kenneth Francisco, swung into action. He worked with Red Gum, a Singapore food manufacturer that sells its products retail and to supermarkets, hotels and restaurants, to come up with diabetic-friendly strawberry and orange jams. The product is awaiting halal certification before the hospital starts serving it to patients.

Meanwhile, samples have gone out to other hospitals, to interest them in buying the jam from Red Gum for their own patients. The hospital also plans to sell the jams in its pharmacy.