Need a quick trip down nostalgia lane? Then dive into the National Museum’s newest exhibition, Packaging Matters: Singapore’s Food Packaging Story from the Early 20th Century. Phew, it’s a long title, but it basically tells you all you need to know about what to expect.
Running from this weekend till September, the heritage exhibition takes a look at the evolution of food packing in Singapore with more than 150 artifacts from the National Collection. Most haven’t been displayed before, but older visitors may recognize them from their childhood days.
From the early bottling and canning factories to the food-manufacturing factories, the journey brings you through short snippets of stories from food industry pioneers that we’re all familiar with. But not just that — it also highlights innovations in sustainability and how design will affect the future of food packaging.
The gallery itself is small, and its contents aren’t a deep dive into the topic, but they do give a fresh look at our country’s food history through the lens of iconic brands that some of us grew up with.
Starting with the rise of the canned pineapple industry between the 19th and 20th century, and moving on to small-scale family-run businesses in the mid-20th century, the exhibition highlights the processes of making foods like soy sauces, ground coffee powder, and noodles. One spotlight is the Amoy Canning Corporation in China, which opened its Singapore branch in 1949 and produced canned food, soy sauce, and preserved ginger from its first Southeast Asian factory in Bukit Timah.
But besides going through the development of food packaging in Singapore over the years, the exhibition also features the changing designs and the effect of packaging on consumer choice. For example, we’d recognize the Khong Guan or Kickapoo logo anywhere, as both local brands have cemented their brand identities creatively. You’ll see an old school McDonald’s Big Mac polystyrene container among the collection as well — it was phased out in the 1990s after public feedback on the harmful effects of styrofoam.
Towards the end, visitors are encouraged to think about sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives to conventional packaging materials to help out the environment. There’s also a kid-friendly space with larger-than-life hanging installations, a massive wall mural depicting food packaging across the years, art pieces upcycled from packaging materials made by seniors from the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, and a hands-on corner for little ones to identify recyclable types of packaging materials.
For the exhibition’s opening weekend (Apr 6-7), the museum will host a food and eco-craft market selling reusable food containers and carriers, film screenings, craft activities, music performances, storytelling sessions, and an indoor picnic.
FIND IT:
Packaging Matters: Singapore’s Food Packaging Story from the Early 20th Century is on from Apr 6-Sept 15 at National Museum of Singapore, L1 Stamford Gallery. Free entry.
MRT: Bencoolen/Dhoby Ghaut
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