New app tells you how much salt is in that quick meal you just bought in Hong Kong, and the results will probably shock you
Using a simple colour or star rating, FoodSwitch HK will show consumers how healthy a product is when its bar code is scanned by a smartphone
Want to know if your tuna, bacon or cup of noodles is too salty? Then the University of Hong Kong has just served up the perfect app for you.
Just scan the bar code of a food product in any store using the FoodSwitch HK app. If it is in a database of 13,000 pre-packaged products, you will see a simple colour or star rating that tells you how salty it is.
The Chinese-language version of the app was launched on Tuesday by its joint developers, HKU’s school of biological sciences and The George Institute for Global Health in Australia. FoodSwitch is already being used in a host of countries around the world, including Britain, Australia, and the United States.
Dr Jimmy Louie Chun-yu, assistant professor in food and nutritional science at HKU, said based on several studies, Hongkongers were eating up to 10 grams of salt a day, twice the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily intake.
And more than three-quarters of this came from packaged food, he said.
