Those with a sweet tongue should think twice before grabbing a steamed cake: eating two of them already exceeds recommended levels of weekly aluminium intake.
Regular consumers of aluminium-containing food additives - used in steamed bread, bakery products and jellyfish - face health risks including premature delivery and hampered growth.
Children and babies should be careful with their diets, the Centre for Food Safety said yesterday. Pregnant women should also be cautious as an excessive aluminium intake could affect their fetus.
Tests had shown that an excessive intake over a prolonged period of time could cause changes in the testes, shorten the length of gestation, delay maturation and impair development of the nervous system in animals, the centre said.
The centre's consultant, Ho Yuk-yin, said 256 samples, comprising 60 prepackaged and 196 non-prepackaged food items - were tested for aluminium and 97 per cent had the metal.
The most aluminium was found in ready-to-eat jellyfish - 1,200mg per kg. Under normal eating habits, jellyfish constitutes 10 per cent of a quota of aluminium intake set by an expert panel on food additives formed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation.