Mouthing Off | Eating in the office: whether it’s healthy snacks, junk food munchies, travel souvenirs or free lunches, it says a lot about us

The standard Hong Kong office desk has three drawers. The top one is thin and shallow, suitable for stationery and supplies. There are two larger and deeper cabinets beneath. In the bottom one, people usually store personal items like handbags, electronics and a jumper or shawl to counter the aggressive air conditioning.

However, the middle drawer is where a real Hongkonger reveals his or her character. This should be stocked full of snacks, nibbles and teatime munchies. It’s a good bet that, in the average drawer, you’ll find some matcha Kit Kats, dried squid jerky, potato chips of assorted flavours, and an even wider variety of shelf-stable cakes and biscuits.

For a while, everybody was crazy for salted egg fried fish skin. But the novelty seems to have worn off and classics like Pocky sticks are back in fashion.

Even people who don’t snack will inevitably have something in their desk. It could be a piece of Taiwanese pineapple cake, some pandan toffee, or cheap Meiji chocolates. These used to be de rigueur souvenirs from colleagues’ holidays, cheap token edibles bought last-minute at the airport. Now, even if they’re bought as gifts, people end up eating them all in quarantine to battle boredom.

Of course, none of it is good for you. According to the US Centres for Disease Control, the effects of obesity and poor health cost US companies more than US$225 billion a year in lost productivity and wages.

This is one reason some large firms now offer free nutritious snacks for employees. Depending on how well the company is doing, in the pantry you might find granola bars, popcorn and veggie crisps, and more than likely a big basket of apples, oranges, and bananas somewhere.