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Potato chips, french fries, and prawn crackers are popular snacks in Hong Kong, but they have been found not to be healthy.
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Most of these popular snacks are contaminated with the chemical acrylamide, which can potentially cause cancer, the consumer watchdog has found in a study.
Potato chips are also high in fat, the study revealed.
The Consumer Council said it tested 77 samples of pre-packaged and non-prepackaged potato chips, prawn crackers and other crispy snacks. Except for one sample of veggie chips and six samples of prawn crackers, all others contained acrylamide.
Pre-packaged potato chips and potato sticks had the highest amount of acrylamide.
More than 30 percent of them had acrylamide in excess of the benchmark levels of European Commission regulation.
Almost all samples of pre-packaged potato chips and potato sticks were high in fat.
The total fat content of three samples was more than double the high fat level (20g/100g of food) set by the Centre for Food Safety.
Samples of pre-packaged prawn crackers and prawn sticks, corn chips and corn sticks, and quinoa chips had relatively lower acrylamide and total fat content. But they had high amounts of salt.
Acrylamide is a chemical used in a variety of industrial applications.
The council tested 67 samples of pre-packaged crispy snacks, including 29 packs of potato chips, potato sticks, 13 packs of prawn crackers and prawn sticks, 12 samples of corn chips and corn sticks, seven samples of veggie chips, three samples of quinoa chips, and three samples of sweet potatoes and batata-type chips.
Acrylamide levels ranged from 22 micrograms to 964 micrograms per kilo. Many had potentially hazardous levels of acrylamide.
Of the 10 non-prepackaged potato snacks, three exceeded EU standards, including food from Five Guys, IKEA, and Spaghetti House. Acrylamide levels ranged from 38 micrograms to 964 micrograms per kilo.
As for the 29 types pre-packaged potato snacks, acrylamide was found in all. Nine snacks had acrylamide levels exceeding EU standards.
‘Topvalu’ potato chips had the highest levels of acrylamide, with 2,614 micrograms per kilogram, nearly 2.5 times higher than EU levels.
Among the seven types of pre-packaged vegetable chips, only one did not contain significant levels of acrylamide. All of the 12 types of corn chips and the three types of quinoa flakes contained detectable levels of acrylamide ranging from 22 micrograms to 574 micrograms per kilo for the corn chips, and 53 to 107 micrograms per kilo for the quinoa, the council said.
Of the 13 types of shrimp crackers, six did not reveal any acrylamide, while seven had detectable levels of between 22 and 574 micrograms per kilo.
The fat and salt in samples were also very high, the council said.
The Centre for Food Safety classifies any food item with more than 20 grams of fat per 100g as ‘high in fat.’ Many also fulfilled the high-in-fat criteria.
In the 29 samples of pre-packaged potato chips, the fat content ranged from 17g to 43g per 100g, with only one sample, ‘Pop Chips, Sea Salt’ being below the 20g threshold. The remaining 28 samples were all high-fat food. Three had fat greater than 40g per 100g.
Among the three samples of sweet potato chips, the fat content ranged from 17.6g to 33.8g per 100g, while the seven samples of vegetable chips had fat content ranging from 10.3g to 33.7g per 100g. Additionally, the “Green Day Mixed Veggie Chips” contained 0.7g of trans fat per 100g, which was not reported on the nutrition label.
