Trans-fat labelling information on prepackaged foods and beverages sold in Hong Kong in 2019

• Published in: Public health nutrition Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 315 - 322
• Main Authors: Cheng, Christopher Chi Wai, Wu, Jason HY, Louie, Jimmy Chun Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.02.2023
• Subjects: Accuracy; Alcoholic beverages; Bakery products; Brand names; Cholesterol; Continuity (mathematics); Descriptive labeling; Food; Food labelling; Food supply; Global Trade Item Number; Hong Kong; Hydrogenation; Indicators; Ingredients; International trade; Labeling; Labels; Monitoring and surveillance; Nutrition; Oils & fats; Packaged food; Pre-packaged foods; Research Paper; Statistical analysis; Trans-fat; Variance analysis; Vegetable oils; Hong Kong China; China; Food labelling; Trans-fat; Accuracy; Hong Kong; Pre-packaged foods
• ISSN: 1368-9800; 1475-2727
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980022002464

To examine the labelling status of -fat of pre-packaged foods sold in Hong Kong. Data from 19 027 items in the 2019 FoodSwitch Hong Kong database were used. Ingredient lists were screened to identify specific (e.g. partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, PHVO) and non-specific -fat ingredient indicators (e.g. hydrogenated oil). -fat content was obtained from the on-pack nutrition labels, which was converted into proportion of total fat (% ). Descriptive statistics were calculated for -fat content and the number of specific, non-specific and total -fat ingredients indicators found on the ingredients lists. Comparisons were made between regions using one-way ANOVA and for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Cross-sectional audit. Not applicable. A total of 729 items (3·8 % of all products) reported to contain industrially produced -fat, with a median of 0·4 g/100 g or 100 ml (interquartile range (IQR): 0·1-0·6) and 1·2 % (IQR: 0·6-2·9). 'Bread and bakery products' had the highest proportion of items with industrially produced -fat (18·9 %). 'Non-alcoholic beverages' had the highest proportion of products of 'false negatives' labelling (e.g. labelled as 0 -fat but contains PHVO; 59·3 %). The majority of products with -fat indicator originated from Asia (70 %). According to the labelling ∼4 % of pre-packaged food and beverages sold in Hong Kong in 2019 contained industrially produced -fat, and a third of these had -fat >2 % . The ambiguous -fat labelling in Hong Kong may not effectively assist consumers in identifying products free from industrially produced -fat.