-fat labelling information on prepackaged foods and beverages sold in Hong Kong in 2019.

Objective: To examine the labelling status of -fat of pre-packaged foods sold in Hong Kong.

Design: Data from 19 027 items in the 2019 FoodSwitch Hong Kong database were used. Ingredient lists were screened to identify specific (e.g. partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, PHVO) and non-specific -fat ingredient indicators (e.g. hydrogenated oil). -fat content was obtained from the on-pack nutrition labels, which was converted into proportion of total fat (%). Descriptive statistics were calculated for -fat content and the number of specific, non-specific and total -fat ingredients indicators found on the ingredients lists. Comparisons were made between regions using one-way ANOVA and for continuous and categorical variables, respectively.

Setting: Cross-sectional audit.

Participants: Not applicable.

Results: A total of 729 items (3·8 % of all products) reported to contain industrially produced -fat, with a median of 0·4 g/100 g or 100 ml (interquartile range (IQR): 0·1-0·6) and 1·2 % (IQR: 0·6-2·9). 'Bread and bakery products' had the highest proportion of items with industrially produced -fat (18·9 %). 'Non-alcoholic beverages' had the highest proportion of products of 'false negatives' labelling (e.g. labelled as 0 -fat but contains PHVO; 59·3 %). The majority of products with -fat indicator originated from Asia (70 %).

Conclusions: According to the labelling ∼4 % of pre-packaged food and beverages sold in Hong Kong in 2019 contained industrially produced -fat, and a third of these had -fat >2 %. The ambiguous -fat labelling in Hong Kong may not effectively assist consumers in identifying products free from industrially produced -fat.