People nowadays tend to eat out more or cook 'something simple' at home, and many families have replaced this traditional carbohydrate with others, such as bread, pasta and noodles or prepackaged food, according to the food industry and a nutrition professor.

Official figures show total rice consumption was 321,371 tonnes last year, a 7.9 per cent drop from 349,230 tonnes in 1996, a period during which the population rose 8.3 per cent, from 6.43 million in 1996 to 6.97 million last year.

And the trend in consumption of other foods shows people are not eating healthier than before, with figures showing the amount of vegetables, fruit and fresh meat eaten has also dropped over the decade.

According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the total daily consumption of vegetables in Hong Kong was 1,510 tonnes last year, down 7.3 per cent from 1,630 tonnes in 1996. Over the same period, fruit consumption fell 5.5 per cent, from 1,630 tonnes to 1,540. Families were also found to have consumed less fresh meat, with a drop of between 19 and 56 per cent for different kinds of meat.

'In the past, people would eat two big bowls of rice with a small piece of salted fish. But people nowadays no longer eat for fullness but for quality and variety,' said Lee Kwong-lam, an executive member of the Hong Kong Food Council.

Mr Lee, who has been in the trade for nearly 50 years, said many people chose not to cook rice but to eat out and shop for prepackaged food for convenience.

James Foo Che-fuk, chairman of the Rice Merchants' Association, said rice consumption had dropped sharply from 120kg a person a year back in the 1960s to only about 49kg nowadays. But Mr Foo said the demand had increased slightly recently as more people chose to eat 'healthy rice', such as brown rice.

Edmund Li Tsze-shing, associate professor in nutrition and head of zoology at the University of Hong Kong, attributed the long-term drop in eating rice to both the fashionable trend of slimming diets and the growing habit of eating out.

'Many slimming diets promote eating meat to replace carbohydrates, such as the low-carb diet, which originated in the west and has also become popular in Hong Kong. Some theories also claim that rice is a 'fattening' food.'

The trend towards eating out provided choices other than rice, such as spaghetti, pizza and noodles, Professor Li said.

The drop in rice consumption did not mean people were eating healthier than before, as most people did not eat enough vegetables and fruit and preferred meat to carbohydrates, he said.

The Hong Kong government does not provide official figures on the consumption of canned and prepackaged food.

But meat products imported into Hong Kong climbed 58 per cent over 12 years.

Professor Li said people should maintain a balanced diet with about half their calories coming from carbohydrates, including starchy food, fruit and vegetables.