Which Hong Kong restaurant you choose may be key to healthier dining out, study shows
Study between the Consumer Council and the Centre for Food Safety reveals wild discrepancies in nutrients in the same dishes from different eateries
Where you eat might be more important than what you eat when dining out, according to the results of a consumer watchdog study released on Wednesday.
A study between the Consumer Council and the government’s Centre for Food Safety discovered alarming levels of salt and fat from 10 popular Hong Kong-style dishes. The study also revealed wild discrepancies in levels of the nutrients in the same dishes ordered from different restaurants.
Between March and April, the Centre for Food Safety collected samples of the 10 dishes, including local favourites sweet and sour pork, scrambled egg with shrimp and fish fillets in corn sauce.
Ten samples of each dish were sourced from restaurants across the city to evaluate how different cooking methods affects the nutrient levels.
For example, one sample of Chinese sweet and sour beef from Lei Garden in Kowloon contained 110g of fat, while the same dish from Ngan Lung Restaurant in Mong Kok only carried 8.8g.
In terms of salt, a serving of steamed pork patty with salted egg at Zhu Jiang Restaurant in Prince Edward had a whopping 3,000mg of sodium, 4.5 times more than the same dish from Ming Garden Restaurant in Lai Chi Kok.
