Food delivery apps ‘threaten Hong Kong’s food culture and peoples’ health’
Experts warn that increasingly popular food delivery apps are bad news for young Hongkongers’ health and are destroying culinary traditions
The rise in popularity of food delivery apps in Hong Kong is contributing to an erosion of the city’s traditional food culture and could be harming young peoples’ health in particular, academics have warned.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay, professor of marketing at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and co-editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, said the food delivery apps trend threatens to reduce Hongkongers’ appetite for local Chinese food, as well as changing the city’s eating out culture.
He said the phenomenon was occurring worldwide, as increasing numbers of consumers seek convenience food.
“People are just eating whatever is most convenient, and this has had huge negative effects not just on public health,” he said. “Traditional foods can be far less convenient to make than modern fast foods. “They often are labour-intensive. So, worldwide, one is seeing a decline of traditional diets.”
Meanwhile Theresa Lai Yeung Wai-Ling, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education at the Education University of Hong Kong, expressed concerns these apps would negatively affect young peoples’ health.
“It will certainly encourage the young generation who use mobile apps habitually to consume more takeaway meals,” she said. “Such a trend will not so much change the taste of young people but will certainly have adverse impact on the well-being of the younger generation because there is no drive for them to learn to prepare meals when the culture is ready made food with home delivery service.”