Food Safety Focus (124^th Issue, November 2016) – Food Incident Highlight

Watch Out for the Sugar Content in Sweet Soups

The Centre for Food Safety and the Consumer Council have jointly conducted a study to inform the public on the sugar content and energy value in sweet soups to enable healthy choices, and to urge the food trade to take action to reduce the sugar content of sweet soups in the market.

Excessive sugar intake is associated with obesity, a risk factor of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The public is advised to maintain a balanced and varied diet and limit the consumption of foods and drinks with high amount of added sugar and high energy value, including sweet soups. While consuming sweet soups, whenever practical, request brown sugar powder or sugar syrup to be served separately during ordering, add suitable amount of sugar to sweet soups (e.g. soybean curd dessert) if necessary after tasting, and share the sweet soups of large portion size with others. When making sweet soups at home, limit the amount of sugar added.