On Monday, the Hong Kong Consumer Council announced that it has detected alleged cancer-causing substances in all 60 biscuit products sampled. The consumer watchdog revealed that at least one of the main chemical culprits—glycidol and acrylamide—are present in each products tested including Hup Seng Special Cream Crackers, Ritz Crackers Cheese Flavoured Sandwich, and Oreo Mini Oreo Original. 3-MCPD was also detected in 56 products tested. The problems are associated with food manufacturing processes involving high temperatures.

51 products sampled were also found to have high fat, sugar, and/or sodium contents. 24 products also have misleading nutrition labels

Our comment

The news has predictably ignited food safety worries from Hong Kong on snacks with levels of acrylamide (to do with potato and other starch, mitigate by washing ingredient) and glycidol (to do with palm oil, mitigate by washing and/or chemical processing), with a problem of sugar and salt similarly mentioned. The findings has also triggered a reaction from health authorities in Malaysia (and probably elsewhere soon) to do testing too.

How many biscuits to be at risk? For a 60kg person, the industry says 18kg biscuits, presumably on a typical amount of the contentious compounds. However, on the worst findings, the media is pointing to a max of three and eight pieces a day for a child and adult respectively. This should also provide a push for high food grade ingredients.