In the past two years, the public's attention has been focused on the new crown epidemic, but non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, will further increase the burden on Hong Kong as the population grows and ages.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Chen Zhaoshi, mentioned in his blog today (22nd) that the government has launched plans to reduce sugar and salt in recent years, including starting from restaurants, schools and other channels.
She also summed up her work in the past five years, believing that reducing salt and sugar has become a part of Hong Kong people's life, and she also found that people no longer have heavy oil and red sauce.
Chen Zhaoshi attended the low-salt and low-sugar promotion activities.
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More than 50% of the dead are not caused by infectious diseases
According to the Food and Health Bureau, in 2016, the main non-communicable diseases, namely cancer, cardiovascular diseases (including heart disease and stroke), diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, accounted for 55% of all registered deaths.
The above-mentioned diseases and other non-communicable diseases have put a heavy pressure on the health of citizens and the development of society.
Non-communicable diseases are not unrelated to excessive intake of sodium (400 mg per gram of salt) and sugar in the diet.
Excessive intake of sodium can lead to high blood pressure, fatal stroke and coronary heart disease; excessive intake of sugar can lead to obesity and tooth decay, but also increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
Chen Zhaoshi pointed out that in the "Towards 2025: Strategy and Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases in Hong Kong" announced in May 2018, 9 targets were set for non-communicable diseases, 3 of which were related to reducing salt and sugar. These include reducing the daily sodium intake of Hong Kong people by 30% by 2025, halting the worsening of diabetes and obesity, and halting the increase in the prevalence of hypertension.
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Train students to eat healthy from an early age
Chen Zhaoshi believes that good eating habits must be cultivated from an early age, so the authorities have implemented the "School Lunch Salt Reduction Project" in primary schools since 2017/18, with the goal of reducing the average sodium content of primary school lunches by about 5% to 10% each year. And reduce the sodium content of lunch to no more than 500 mg within 10 years.
At present, a total of 12 school lunch suppliers have participated, and have designed more than 3,000 sodium-reduced lunch meals for schools.
In addition, the Department of Health has launched the "Healthy Drinks in Schools" charter programme in kindergartens and child care centres since the 2018/19 school year to promote the provision of healthy drinks in kindergartens and child care centres; To deepen school children's understanding of the low-salt and low-sugar diet, including animated children's songs, and the launch of the motion-sensing electronic version of "Salt and Sugar Less Game".
In the 2021/22 school year, the authorities also cooperated with a primary school to conduct a pilot cooking workshop with less salt and less sugar. In response to the arrangement of online teaching, the authorities also invested resources to produce online video clips and hold online school lectures earlier this year.
Teaching props with less salt and less sugar.
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14% less sodium in non-prepackaged squares last year
According to a study by the Centre for Food Safety, bread ranks fourth among the main food categories of sodium intake among adults in Hong Kong.
Therefore, in 2019, the authorities launched a voluntary sodium reduction program for prepackaged white and wheat buns, with the participation of seven large bakery production chains.
The plan has since expanded to non-prepackaged white and wheat buns, with support from 16 bakeries.
All non-prepackaged white square buns and wheat square bun products have been successfully reduced to the average and upper limit targets set by the Center for Food Safety and the industry last year, with a reduction of 14% and 16% respectively; while prepackaged white square buns and wheat square buns The average sodium content of the square bags also decreased gradually.
The Food and Health Bureau promotes low-salt and low-sugar promotion activities in schools.
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Plan to introduce sugar/salt labelling for packaged food
The authorities also launched the "Salt/Sugar Labeling Scheme for Prepackaged Foods" in October 2017, encouraging manufacturers, importers and distributors to participate in the "low-salt", "no-salt", "low-sugar", "low-salt", The label of the prepackaged food display program defined by "sugar-free" has nearly 240 products participating.
The authorities have also promoted it on social media and other channels, and set up a large advertising magnet wall at the Kowloon Tong MTR station in February last year, and distributed free "salt/sugar" magnet labels.
The "Salt and Sugar Reduction Scheme" launched by the government and the Committee in 2019 has so far involved more than 1,200 restaurants or tea shops from over 300 brands, covering Chinese, Western, vegetarian, social enterprises, etc. Category of restaurant.
The authorities have also launched the "Sweet Sugar Friday" program since August 2020. The program covers tea shops, tea restaurants, coffee shops and university campus canteens. So far, more than 120 tea shops have participated. Participating tea shops will receive a souvenir as an encouragement for purchasing designated low-sugar beverages.
The evolution is promoted on social media
In the face of the challenges of the epidemic, the authorities have also adopted social media for publicity.
In the past two years, Internet celebrities from different sectors have been invited to launch short films and documentaries with less salt and less sugar, including interviews and demonstrations by famous chefs, entertainers, athletes, nutritionists, and healthy people.
From mid-2021 onwards, information will be provided on a monthly thematic basis through social media and newspapers.
From November 2021 to the end of 2022, it will launch a series of health information with less salt and less sugar with RTHK for the first time.
From the end of November 2021, the authorities have also cooperated with 6 district health centres and 11 district health stations to send the latest information on salt and sugar reduction every week.
The authorities have recently launched a simple recipe with less salt and less sugar, which has been carefully reviewed by registered dietitians, and has been translated into Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia and uploaded to the website of the Food and Health Bureau for reference when preparing meals at home.
Chen Zhao said in 2019 that he hoped to gradually reduce the average sodium content of primary school lunch boxes to no more than 500 mg within 10 years.
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Chen Zhaoshi believes that the eating habit of less salt and less sugar is not something that happens overnight and must be persistent.
She also pointed out that with the promotion of the government, many people have found that they no longer have heavy oily red sauce, and restaurants have also expressed that more and more customers are asking for less salt and less sugar.
She believes that with the promotion efforts in the past five years, salt and sugar reduction has become a part of Hong Kong people's life.
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Beginning in early 2019, the authorities cooperated with an online restaurant search platform to set up an index sign for restaurants with less salt and less sugar.
In 2021, the number of people searching for restaurants with less salt and less sugar through relevant platforms will increase significantly by 87% compared with 2020. This year, under the epidemic situation, the average number of searches per month is also close to 23.5 million.
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In November 2020, a survey of consumers purchasing tea beverages found that 74% of the 633 consumers surveyed would choose sugar-free or less sugar when purchasing tea beverages.
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At the end of 2021, a sample survey will be conducted with the assistance of tertiary students to assess the public's concerns about diets with less salt and sugar.
The results of the survey showed that the public's awareness of diets with less salt and less sugar was higher than the general level, reflecting that the efforts made by the Committee were gradually bearing fruit.
【Salt and Sugar Reduction】The Food and Health Bureau's Bread Salt Reduction Plan "churn for 3 more minutes" can reduce the sodium content by 10% Chen Zhaoshi: More than 500 restaurants provide salt-reduced and sugar-reduced dishes. Food manufacturers pledge to improve formulas Centre for Food Safety Participating manufacturers in the Bread Salt Reduction Program reduce sodium by 3% a year, and treat depression without relying on drugs. Diet reduction of salt and sugar can help fight depression. In 2016, more than half of the people who died of chronic diseases died, and the overall life expectancy was reduced by 100,000 years.
