He watches what you eat - literally.

Mr Lawrence Low is a food safety consultant. He started his company, Gourmet Food Safety Consultancy, three years ago after having worked in the industry here and in China for more than 14 years.

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He has since taken on two full-time and one part-time staff.

Said the holder of a master's degree in food technology from the University of Reading in Britain: 'Three years ago, I found that there were not too many consultants who truly specialised in food safety.'

The 37-year-old notes that Singapore's lack of raw materials drives up manufacturing costs. He sees a challenge for the food industry, which needs to be competitive, yet maintain high safety standards.

His clients, mostly large food manufacturers, hire him to review their plants and set up a system of processes to help meet food safety requirements from the authorities like the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority in Singapore.

With a high demand for food safety auditors, he notes that the industry has attracted its fair share of fraudsters.

'Anyone who comes in can self-declare himself as a food-safety consultant. People join because they see this as a money-generating area but their background is IT or electrical and mechanical engineering,' he said.

He earns between $10,000 and $15,000 monthly during 'good months', when he handles about three to four clients at a time.

There are months too without any client.

Mr Low feels that accreditation makes a difference to ensuring a good reputation.

He is an approved auditor under the International Register of Certificated Auditors (UK) and one of only four registered HACCP consultants - assessed and approved by the Singapore Institute of Food Science and Technology - in Singapore.

HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, is a production-monitoring process that aims to identify and reduce hazards in food production.

Debbie Yong

This article was first published in The Straits Times.