Slurp safely: restaurant soups too salty, Hong Kong consumer watchdog warns
Large-scale survey by Consumer Council and Centre for Food Safety saw one offender containing more sodium than recommended daily intake in single serving
The relatively high sodium content in soups served at restaurants may cause diners to exceed their recommended daily salt intake without even realising the problem, the Consumer Council has warned.
Among the worst culprits was a sample of tom yum soup from a Thai restaurant, a 240-gram serving of which contained 2,016 milligrams of sodium.
The World Health Organisation suggests an intake of no more than 2,000mg, or one level teaspoon of salt, per day, with a target of reducing this by another 30 per cent by 2025.
Teaming up with the Centre for Food Safety, the watchdog conducted a large-scale survey of 13 types of Chinese, Western and Asian-style soups commonly served at the city’s eateries.
A total of 130 samples were collected between August and November last year. Five pre-packaged soups sold at retail outlets were also tested.
While the tom yum soup took “top honours”, second on the list was a hot and sour soup from a Shanghainese restaurant chain that contained 1,608mg of sodium per serving.